Lone Wolf - by Adam Weymouth (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

An illuminating account of one wolf's journey 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.

In 2011, a wolf named Slavc left his home territory of Slovenia for a wide-ranging journey across the Alps. Tracked by a GPS collar, he traveled over 1,200 miles, where he would mate with a female wolf on a walkabout of her own--the only two wolves for hundreds of square miles--and start the first pack to call the Italian Alps home in more than a century. A decade later and there are more than a hundred wolves in the area, the result of their remarkable meeting. Now, journalist Adam Weymouth follows Slavc's path on foot, and in doing so, interrogates the fears and realities of those living on land that is being repopulated by wolves; a metaphor for economic, political, and climate upheaval in a region that is seeing a centuries-old way of life being upended.

Weymouth journeys to understand how wolves--vilified throughout history in literature, art, and folklore--are slowly creeping back into our forests, woods, and sometimes even our towns, and what that deep-rooted terror at the back of our minds really means. Slavc serves as the ultimate symbol for the outsider, journeying through places that are now wrestling with an influx of immigration, a resurgence of the far-right wing, and the steady decline of the environment due to the rapid advance of climate change; the question of how we see the other and treat the earth becomes paramount in everyday lives. Examining the political dimensions that this individual animal's trek brings to light, Lone Wolf tells a newly resonant story--one less about fear and more about the courage required to seek out a new life, as well as the challenge of accepting the changing world around us.

Sharply observed, searching, and written in poetic and precise 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

"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

"A gorgeous, loping, deeply observant inquiry into the meaning of coexistence on a changing planet."--Kate Harris, author of Lands of Lost Borders

"Both haunting and hopeful, Lone Wolf reveals that the line between flesh and fur, between boot print and paw print, is really no line at all."--Harley Rustad, author of Lost in the Valley of Death

"Lone Wolf is an extraordinary story of a resurgent species and a continent in upheaval, expertly told by an author as tenacious as his subject."--Michelle Nijhuis, author of Beloved Beasts

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.