The Wolf Border - by Sarah Hall (Paperback)

About the Book

"First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Faber & Faber Limited"--T.p. verso.

Book Synopsis

From the award-winning author of Burntcoat and The Electric Michelangelo, one of the most decorated young British writers working today, comes a literary masterpiece: a breathtaking work that beautifully and provocatively surveys the frontiers of the human spirit and our animal drives.

For almost a decade, zoologist Rachel Caine has lived a solitary existence far from her estranged family in England, monitoring wolves in a remote section of Idaho as part of a wildlife recovery program. But a surprising phone call takes her back to the peat and wet light of the Lake District where she grew up. The eccentric Earl of Annerdale has a controversial scheme to reintroduce the Grey Wolf to the English countryside, and he wants Rachel to spearhead the project. Though she's skeptical, the earl's lands are close to the village where she grew up, and where her aging mother now lives.

While the earl's plan harks back to an ancient idyll of untamed British wilderness, Rachel must contend with modern-day realities--health and safety issues, public anger and fear, cynical political interests. But the return of the Grey unexpectedly sparks her own regeneration.

Exploring the fundamental nature of wilderness and wildness, The Wolf Border illuminates both our animal nature and humanity: sex, love, conflict, and the desire to find answers to the question of our existence--the emotions, desires, and needs that rule our lives.

From the Back Cover

Rachel Caine is a zoologist working in Nez Perce, Idaho, as part of a wolf recovery project. She spends her days, and often nights, tracking the every move of a wild wolf pack--their size, their behavior, their howl patterns. It is a fairly solitary existence, but Rachel is content.

When she receives a call from the wealthy and mysterious Earl of Annerdale, who is interested in reintroducing the grey wolf to northern England, Rachel agrees to a meeting. She is certain she wants no part of this project, but the Earl's estate is close to the village where Rachel grew up, and where her aging mother now lives in a care facility. It has been far too long since Rachel has gone home, and so she returns to face the ghosts of her past.

The Wolf Border is a breathtaking story about the frontier of the human spirit, from one of the most celebrated young writers working today.

Review Quotes

"With echoes of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and P. D. James's The Children of Men, Hall's dystopian landscape is far too close for comfort. . . . As rich and exhilarating as it is disturbing." - The Times (London) on Daughters of the North
"Regeneration in a multitude of guises is the mainstay of the novel; but rather than overworking the metaphor, Hall organically incorporates each and every instance into the narrative, adding a tensile strength to the base architecture upon which the story hangs ... One of the fiction highlights of this year." - The Observer
"[C]ompelling ... [a] gripping last third." - New Statesman
"Make no mistake, Hall is an accomplished wordsmith. The novel's prose is meticulous." - Lionel Shriver, Financial Times
"[A] wonderfully assured page-turner...Worth reading for its style, wisdom and narrative pull, as well as for its exploration of wildness in many forms, human and lupine." - Literary Review
"[H]er sense of place is visceral, the changing of seasons as dramatic as any of the plot's set pieces." - Aberdeen Press & Journal [Scotland]
"[A] writer of sensual, muscular prose about the liminal spaces between civilisation and wilderness ... Everything about this setting provides a perfect playground for Hall's gorgeously visceral prose ... As the plot heads towards a crash, it's hard to decide which is more frightening: the untameable, or to be tamed." - The Independent on Sunday
"I was swept along by the stunning prose and compelling story." - Woman & Home (UK)
"Vivid and visceral." - The Times (London)
"I imagine that THE WOLF BORDER -- stylish, intelligent and a cracking read -- will mark the point at which [Hall] stops being promising, and becomes something of a star." - Sunday Times (London)
"Both uplifting and enthralling, THE WOLF BORDER is as much a hymn to the rugged beauty of the Cumbrian countryside as it is an exploration of the nature of wilderness and of the durability of the human spirit. Beautiful and quite stunning." - Mail on Sunday
"THE WOLF BORDER ... weighs sense and sensuality, order and chaos, with sumptuous grace... But [the] plot too is gripping, propelled by some intriguing mysteries, a couple of conspiracies and a pulse-racing set-piece in which Rachel juggles baby, wolves, brother and vocation. Figuratively, of course." - Independent
"The skills that Sarah Hall demonstrates in her highly anticipated fifth novel are significant and profound... So it is that the descriptions of altered or threatened landscapes for which she is celebrated ... convey beauty but resist the picturesque, instead posing questions about it." - The Guardian
This is a book overflowing with life and history, propelled by a writer who engages all the reader's senses." - Telegraph
"One of Granta's Best Young British Novelists, Hall offers an earthy novel, successfully exploring ideas of family, maternity, personal demons, social class, and wilderness vs. urban development. Interesting and original, it should have wide appeal." - Library Journal (starred review)
"An absorbing portrait of a woman and her conflicted relationships with family, homeland, and identity." - Booklist
"A gifted writer, Hall offers a compelling, lyrical story rich in observation and symbolism." - Kirkus Reviews
"A thrilling tale of politics and power ... Compulsively absorbing and masterfully plotted, [THE WOLF BORDER] confirms Hall as one of our finest fiction writers." - Daily Mail (UK)
"A bold, sensuous novel." - Elle