From the author of the beloved national bestseller Migrations, a #1 IndieNext pick and Amazon’s Best Novel of 2020, a gorgeous and pulse-pounding new novel set in the wild Scottish Highlands.
Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team of biologists tasked with reintroducing fourteen gray wolves into the remote Highlands. She hopes to heal not only the dying landscape, but Aggie, too, unmade by the terrible secrets that drove the sisters out of Alaska.
Inti is not the woman she once was, either, changed by the harm she’s witnessed—inflicted by humans on both the wild and each other. Yet as the wolves surprise everyone by thriving, Inti begins to let her guard down, even opening herself up to the possibility of love. But when a farmer is mauled to death, Inti knows where the town will lay blame. Unable to accept her wolves could be responsible, Inti makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn’t make the kill, then is something more sinister at play?
Once There Were Wolves is the unforgettable story of a woman desperate to save the creatures she loves—if she isn’t consumed by a wild that was once her refuge.
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McConaghy's latest novel shares plenty of DNA with her 2020 breakout Migrations. Both novels follow memorable, hardened female leads who navigate life from behind carefully constructed defense mechanisms; both narratives are haunted by characters' pasts and also their presents; and both are shaded with an existential fear born of our climate change crisis. They also bear the influence of McConaghy's screenwriting background, arriving to the page rife with distinctive characters and plenty of dramatic tensions. That quality is perhaps even more present in this work, its lightly suspenseful contours almost recalling the shape of the average best-selling psychological thriller, but McConaghy smartly doesn't rise to such easy histrionics. Revelations are handled with restraint, never over-punctuating the novel's controlled rhythm, and even the bevy of metaphorical fodder-of which there is plenty, this being a story about wolves and human nature and the monster-making that takes place in our minds-remains welcomingly unsettled and intellectually rigorous. Ultimately, the narrative impressively roots itself in the center of a Venn diagram of diverse readers, marrying the complex character work and delicate prose of the best literary fiction with plenty of twisty mystery threads for genre-inclined readers, and peppering in the right amount of distinctive background and heady rumination to result in a truly arresting and singular work. VERDICT Another win for McConaghy that weaves together various modes and creates something that will be immediately appealing to a diverse spate of readers.-Luke Gorham, Galesburg P.L., IL