History of Wolves - Books of Duck Cafe

Paperback

Published by W&N.

ISBN:: 978-1-4746-0295-2

(1 review)

Fourteen-year-old Linda lives with her parents in the beautiful, austere woods of northern Minnesota, where their nearly abandoned commune stands as a last vestige of a lost counter-culture world. Isolated at home and an outlander at school, Linda is drawn to the enigmatic, attractive Lily and new history teacher Mr. Grierson. When Mr. Grierson is charged with possessing child pornography, the implications of his arrest deeply affect Linda as she wrestles with her own fledgling desires and craving to belong.

And then the young Gardner family moves in across the lake and Linda finds herself welcomed into their home as a babysitter for their little boy, Paul. It seems that her life finally has purpose but with this new sense of belonging she is also drawn into secrets she doesn’t understand. Over the course of a few days, Linda makes a set of choices that reverberate throughout her life. As …

Fourteen-year-old Linda lives with her parents in the beautiful, austere woods of northern Minnesota, where their nearly abandoned commune stands as a last vestige of a lost counter-culture world. Isolated at home and an outlander at school, Linda is drawn to the enigmatic, attractive Lily and new history teacher Mr. Grierson. When Mr. Grierson is charged with possessing child pornography, the implications of his arrest deeply affect Linda as she wrestles with her own fledgling desires and craving to belong.

And then the young Gardner family moves in across the lake and Linda finds herself welcomed into their home as a babysitter for their little boy, Paul. It seems that her life finally has purpose but with this new sense of belonging she is also drawn into secrets she doesn’t understand. Over the course of a few days, Linda makes a set of choices that reverberate throughout her life. As she struggles to find a way out of the sequestered world into which she was born, Linda confronts the life-and-death consequences of the things people do, and fail to do, for the people they love.

8 editions

stillitcomes reviewed History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund

Fantastic

5 stars

Note that, despite having a teenage protagonist, this is not a YA novel. It's a dark, ambiguous, subtly-written story about isolation, faith, memory, and the difference between what you do and what you think.

There's no way I can describe this book that does it justice. It packs a lot into under 500 pages, so it has to be read slowly.

I wasn't sure how I felt about it at the end, but I ended up writing over 1000 words in my notes app trying to analyse it, so I guess that means I loved it.