Author(s): Emily Fridlund

Novel

Linda has an idiosyncratic home life: her parents live in abandoned commune cabins in northern Minnesota and are hanging on to the last vestiges of a faded counter-culture world. The kids at school call her 'Freak', or 'Commie'. She is an outsider in all things. Her understanding of the world comes from her observations at school, where her teacher is accused of possessing child pornography, and from watching the seemingly ordinary life of a family she babysits for. Yet while the accusation against the teacher is perhaps more innocent than it seemed at first, the ordinary family turns out to be more complicated. As Linda insinuates her way into the family's orbit, she realises they are hiding something. If she tells the truth, she will lose the normal family life she is beginning to enjoy with them; and if she doesn't, a life is at stake. Superbly-paced and beautifully written, HISTORY OF WOLVES is an extraordinary debut novel about the lengths a person will go to find the life they desire...

Emily Fridlund’s History of Wolves was the surprise listing on the Man Booker shortlist. A debut novel, it pushed out several contenders (Sebastian Barry’s Costa-winning Days Without End, the popular Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor, and the much-hyped second novel from Arundhati Roy,The Ministry of Utmost Happiness), and highlighted the surprising omission of Mike McCormack’s Solar Bones. This is the sixth and final of the Man Booker shortlist I’ve read and has the disadvantage of comparison with those that went before. Saying that, it is an assured debut with some fine writing and sharp observations about family, belonging and the ability to hold the truth at bay. Set in Minnesota, it’s a coming of age story with a hint of menace. We know from the beginning that things are not going to turn out well. Linda, a fourteen-year-old misfit (she’s an outsider at school referred to as ‘freak’ or ‘commie’), lives a semi-wild existence in a ramshackle cabin with her parents on the edge of a lake hemmed in by forest. The small family is all that remains of an idealistic commune long broken down. Linda is unashamedly robust, practical and unconventional, and you sense that little could phase her. Yet, under the surface, she is vulnerable, achingly sad and sometimes naive. Fridlund pushes our emotions around here - is Linda really as unaware as she makes out? She is observant, smart enough to recognise the predatory behaviour of a teacher. The change in Linda’s isolated lifestyle comes about with the arrival of a city family to their holiday home across the lake. Leo, Patra and their young child, Paul, arrive for time out from the city. Leo quickly leaves to get back to his work and Linda soon becomes the babysitter, taking Paul on walks into the forest and indulging his fantasy worlds. Patra, adoring and obviously fraught (you sense that not all is right in this little world) is fascinating to Linda. There’s a tense awareness and sexual tension between the two young women, one that mostly exists in Linda's head. She is obsessed by being wanted and noticed. A desire to belong to someone, to a family. Devoid of emotional care from her own parents and lacking close friendships, Linda’s ability to close her eyes to what is happening in front of her is stunningly brutal to herself and for those close by. This psychological emptiness continues to play out in Linda’s later life, accentuated by the incident that results in the death of a young boy. Fridlund allows us many glimpses into ‘what happens’, so there are no surprises, yet we are left with plenty to ponder on - religion, obsession and denial. 

{STELLA}