Distilling Rob: Manly Lies and Whisky Truths

Whisky. The word evokes all that is embraced by men. But, what makes a whisky a whisky and what makes a man a man? Rob Gard doesn’t have the answer to either of those questions. He only knows that his high profile, fast living life in Hollywood has him drinking a lot of one and feeling nothing like the other. Distilling Rob: Manly Lies and Whisky Truths tells of how Rob abandoned his life in Los Angeles to move to a small island off the coast of Scotland to work at a whisky distillery. The story uses the whisky-making and maturation process as an analogy for how boys mature into men. Rob’s life, from an insecure working class boy to an uncertain "man,” serves as a vessel to examine how people struggle to understand what it means to be an adult. As he gains a deeper understanding of himself the longer he work at the distillery, the question looms of whether or not Rob will comprehend the meaning of ”adulthood” before he has to leave the island. The story connects with anyone, male or female, who sometimes feels like a childish impostor inhabiting the body of an “adult”. Balanced between the external adventure of a foreign land and the internal voyage of self-comprehension, Distilling Rob uses humor and honesty to challenge readers to take that same journey within their lives.