The Hour of the Wolf - by Fatima Bhutto (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From acclaimed journalist and novelist Fatima Bhutto, whose work has been hailed as "intense and powerful" (NPR), comes a searing, intimate memoir of grief, heartbreak, and what we owe the natural world--all learned from the dog who saved her life.

Fatima Bhutto was a teenager when her beloved father was assassinated. Ever since, she longed for a complete and happy family. Years later, still grappling with profound grief, she meets a charismatic man who offers her a new beginning--promising love, healing, and the children she's always dreamed of. But the dream soon unravels, revealing a toxic, manipulative relationship that holds her captive for over a decade.

By the spring of 2020, Fatima finds herself secluded in the English countryside, accompanied by her most loyal companion: Coco, a fiercely protective Jack Russell terrier. In the presence of nature and Coco's unwavering devotion, Fatima begins to question everything--and slowly finds the courage to confront her suffering and reclaim her voice.

In The Hour of the Wolf, Bhutto weaves reflections on love, loss, and healing with poignant memories of family, a yearning for motherhood, and meditations on literature, cinema, art, politics, and the wild world around her. Heartbreaking yet hopeful, this kaleidoscopic memoir is a testament to resilience, self-acceptance, and the restorative power of friendship--especially that of one small, brave dog.

Review Quotes

Praise for The Hour of the Wolf

"With otherworldly tenderness and the help of her Jack Russell terrier, Fatima Bhutto moves on from a cruel romance. In the breathtaking The Hour of the Wolf, we see her learning to connect to the natural world and her own desires, proving to herself that love has the power to drive away fear."
--Ada Calhoun, New York Times bestselling author of Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me

"The Hour of the Wolf is Fatima Bhutto's most powerful book yet, written with unflinching honesty and deep intellectual curiosity. It is a quietly remarkable work from one of our most searching writers. Prepare to be undone."
--Sonia Faleiro, author of The Good Girls: An Ordinary Killing


Praise for The Runaways

"Fatima Bhutto vividly renders the seductions of Islamic radicalization in such a way that we understand both its historical specificity and its universal roots in idealism and desire, rage and romance, youth and rebellion. Drawn from the headlines but plunging much deeper, The Runaways is a novel for our difficult times."--Viet Thanh Nguyen

"A meticulous psychological study of who turns to radicalism and why ... A provocative investigation of courage, and how it can foment either salvation or damnation."
--Minneapolis Star Tribune

"[The characters'] alternating voices give a kaleidoscopic feel to the plot, and yield a panoramic look at the roots of radicalism."
--Adeel Hassan, New York Times

"Astute and searing."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Stunning ... Bhutto's descriptions trade between stark beauty and restrained horrors, encompassing the damp of a rain-soaked slum, the wonder of self-caging birds, and the pure brightness of moonshine over the desert ... Her pages are brutal and surprising, and their revelations stand to unmake and rebuild their audiences."
--Michelle Anne Schingler, Foreword Reviews (starred review)

"Dazzling. A novel that holds up to scrutiny a world of claustrophobic war zones, virulent social media and cities collapsing upon themselves, and then sets it down again, transformed by the grace of storytelling."
--Siddartha Deb, author of The Point of Return

Praise for New Kings of the World

"[The] urge to refashion the narrative of modern culture drives much of the writing in Bhutto's razor-sharp, intriguing introduction to the various phenomena emerging from Asia."
--Financial Times

"Fascinating.... Those who feared that globalization was just another word for Americanization were mistaken. As Bhutto's book argues, popular entertainment has actually done just the opposite: it has made globalization a force for the un-Americanizaton of the world."
--Air Mail

"A probing look at some of the shifting tides of global culture.... Witty and packed with detail, this is an intercultural shot that should be heard around the world."
--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Fatima Bhutto doesn't miss a thing... she records and observes the terrain of global pop with curiosity, compassion, scalpel-sharp smarts, quiet humor, and an unfailing eye for the absurd. New Kings of the World is cultural reporting at its best."
--Ben Ehrenreich

"A delight, a must-read. Fatima Bhutto is the modern renaissance woman."
--Ed Vulliamy

About the Author

Fatima Bhutto is the author of the novels The Runaways and The Shadow of the Crescent Moon, which was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. She is also the author of the nonfiction works New Kings of the World and Songs of Blood and Sword, which deals with her father's murder and the Bhutto family's history in Pakistani politics. Bhutto's journalism and essays have appeared in Granta, Zeteo, The Guardian, and elsewhere. Bhutto was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and grew up between Syria and Pakistan.