Emily Fridlund debut her
first novel in September of 2017. History of Wolves was immediately
recognized by the Booker Prize Committee with a position on the 2017
shortlist. According to the dust
jacket, she grew up in Minnesota. She
has published several fiction pieces, and she has a PhD in literature and
creative writing from the University of Southern California. Her collection of short stories, Catapult, won the Noemi Book Award for
Fiction and the Mary McCarthy Prize. She
currently lives in the Finger Lakes region of New York.
This ethereal story is about
Linda, a young girl of 15 who is a loner in her high school. No one bothers her, and she keeps to
herself. Another young girl, Lily is
popular, has a boyfriend, but some rumors have ruined her reputation. Linda becomes curious about Lily, and she
follows her around campus, and she never opens herself up to Lily, in fact she
rarely has a word of conversation until the end of the novel. When Lily disappears, Linda goes to her house
and asks about her. Other characters
include Mr. Grierson, a new history teacher at the school, and Patra, a woman
living in a remote cabin with her son, Paul.
Patra’s husband, Leo is, she says, an “astronomer” away from home while
he does his starry thing. Paul anxiously
awaits he father’s return.
Linda is a free spirit, and
she seems to wander around as she will.
Her parents trust her, and they do not pry into her life or
whereabouts. She is also the
narrator. In her wanderings, Linda visit
a nearby cabin and meets Paul, then his mother, they go for a walk, and Linda
becomes Paul’s nanny. Fridlund writes,
“In April, I started taking Paul for walks in the woods while his mother
revised a manuscript of her husband’s research.
The printed pages lay in batches around the cabin, on the countertop and
under chairs. There were also stacks of
books and pamphlets. I’d peeked at the
titles. Predictions and Promises: Extraterrestrial Bodies. Science and Health with a Key to the
Scriptures. The Necessities of Space. //
‘Just keep clear of the house for a few hours’ were Patra’s
instructions. I was given snacks in Baggies,
pretzels wound into small brown bows. I
was given water bottles in a blue backpack, books about trains, Handi Wipes,
coloring books and crayons, suntan lotion.
These went on my back. Paul went
in my hand. His little fingers were damp
and wiggling. But he was trusting, never
once seeming to feel the shock of my skin touching his” (40). There are some peculiar clues here. It turns out that none of these characters
are what they seem. It is not exactly a
mystery, but is an absorbing read.

--Chiron, 12-12-2017
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