Lone Wolf - by Adam Weymouth (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

An illuminating account of a lone wolf journeying across the Alps into Italy, and what the resurgence of wolves says about our connection to nature, immigration, and one another--from an award-winning journalist.

"Lone Wolf is a deeply fascinating story, grippingly told."--Robert Macfarlane, New York Times bestselling author of Underland

In 2011, a lone wolf named Slavc set out from his home territory of Slovenia on an epic journey across the Alps. Tracked by a GPS collar, he walked over a thousand miles. In Italy he bumped into a female wolf on a walkabout of her own--the only two wolves for hundreds of square miles--and when they mated, they formed the first pack to call these mountains home in over a century. Today there are more than a hundred wolves in the area, the result of their remarkable meeting.

In Lone Wolf, writer Adam Weymouth walks the same path through the mountains of Central Europe, interrogating the fears and realities of those living on land that is being repopulated by wolves and exploring the economic, political, and climate upheavals that are seeing a centuries-old way of life being upended.

Weymouth endeavors to understand how wolves--vilified throughout history and folklore--are recolonizing lands where they have been unknown for centuries and how, as the wolf has returned, the fear and hatred have come back, too. Slavc is one more outsider in a region now wrestling with an influx of immigration and a resurgence of the far right, alongside impacts of climate change that are already very real. It is here that questions of how we see the other and treat the Earth cannot be ignored. Examining the political dimensions brought to light by this individual animal's trek, Lone Wolf tells a newly resonant story--one about the courage required to seek out a new life and the challenge of accepting the changing world around us.

Sharply observed, searching, and written in precise, poetic prose, Lone Wolf explores the thorny connection between humans and nature, and indeed between borders themselves, and presses us to consider this much-discussed creature anew.

Review Quotes

"Weymouth is an uncommon brand of travel writer, weaving natural history with culture and politics. . . . Lone Wolf is much more than the story of Slavc: It is a vehicle for Weymouth to trace the fault lines splintering Europe and to examine how people respond when confronted by unwelcome change. . . . To observe and absorb the natural-human interface, as Weymouth does, is an art."--The Atlantic

"Thoughtful, empathetic . . . his pen portraits are vivid and acute. . . . If he keeps going like this, the next book will be extraordinary."--The Sunday Times

"Superb . . . Weymouth's prose is crisp and lyrical."--Sunday Telegraph

"Lone Wolf explains deep time Old World prejudices that still hold an ocean away and across centuries. This book is a mirror that reflects wolf eyes in multiple directions."--Dan Flores, New York Times bestselling author of Coyote America and Wild New World

"Tracing the footsteps of the legendary wolf Slavc, Adam Weymouth guides us alongside melting glaciers and into Austrian farm towns, writing with tremendous curiosity and compassion about the challenges of being an animal--both human and wolf--in a rapidly changing environment."--Erica Berry, award-winning author of Wolfish

"The wolf's resurgence across Europe is a story that will be new to most American readers, and there is nobody better to tell it than Adam Weymouth. Highly recommended!"--Nate Blakeslee, New York Times bestselling author of American Wolf

"Adam Weymouth has made a formidable, thousand-mile foot-journey, both in the tracks of a wolf and into the heart of human-animal relations in contemporary Europe . . . His prose has a glinting precision of analysis and evocation to it."--Robert Macfarlane, New York Times bestselling author of Underland

"Scintillating . . . Weymouth is an ace travel writer whose immersive prose brings to vivid life the characters and settings he encounters . . . It adds up to a penetrating analysis of wolves' contested place in a human-dominated world."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"With clear, engrossing prose [Weymouth] illuminates the plight of the wolf in the modern era--one that plumbs the depths of belonging. A fascinating, powerfully rendered portrait that extends beyond wolves to human nature."--Kirkus Reviews

"Lone Wolf is a major addition to the lupine literary canon--at once a gripping animal adventure story and a thoughtful meditation on history, wanderlust, and belonging in a globalized world."--Ben Goldfarb, award-winning author of Crossings and Eager

"A majestic and hopeful journey, movingly told by one of our master storytellers."--Ben Rawlence, award-winning author of The Treeline

"A book about a wolf, about love and hate, and our conflicted relationship with nature and our fellow human beings. A timely and fascinating read."--Isabella Tree, bestselling author of Wilding

"Essential reading for armchair adventurers and for those who wish to explore the sometimes uncomfortable complexities of rewilding on a thoroughly humanized continent."--Emma Marris, award-winning author of Wild Souls

About the Author

Adam Weymouth is an author and journalist who has written for a wide range of publications, including The Atlantic, The Guardian, the BBC, and Granta. Weymouth won The Sunday Times/PFD 2018 Young Writer of the Year Award for his first book, Kings of the Yukon, which was published to great acclaim, shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize, named the Lonely Planet Adventure Travel Book of the Year, and chosen as a notable title for the 2018 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award. He was named one of ten writers shaping the UK's future by the National Centre for Writing, and lives on the southeast coast of England.