**A New York Times Editors’ Choice and Notable Book of the Year; An O magazine Book to Pick Up; A USA Today Notable Book; An Amazon.com Best Book of the Month; A People Best New Book**
Garnering rave reviews from around the world, History of Wolves is novelist Emily Fridlund’s darkly shimmering debut
“Literary fiction’s newest golden girl.” —National Post
Fourteen-year-old Linda lives with her parents in the beautiful, austere woods of northern Minnesota, where their nearly abandoned commune stands as the last vestige of a lost counterculture world. Isolated at home and an outsider at school, Linda is drawn to the enigmatic, attractive Lily and the 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 come expectations and secrets she doesn’t understand. Over the course of a summer, 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.
A “compelling portrait of a troubled adolescent trying to find her way in a new and frightening world” (People), Emily Fridlund’s propulsive and gorgeously written History of Wolves introduces a new writer of enormous range and talent.
Teenage 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 counterculture world. Isolated at home and an outsider at school, Linda is drawn to the enigmatic, attractive Lily and the new history teacher, Mr. Grierson. When Mr. Grierson is faced with child pornography charges, his arrest deeply affects 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 baby-sitter for their little boy, Paul. But with this new sense of belonging come expectations and secrets she doesn’t understand. Over the course of a summer, 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 conse-quences of the things people do—and fail to do—for the people they love.
Winner of the McGinnis-Ritchie Award for its first chapter, Emily Fridlund’s propulsive and gorgeously written History of Wolves introduces a new writer of enormous range and talent.
“Life offers ‘Linda’ two simultaneous chances to fit in, although both, as we know from the start, go terribly wrong.”
