When There Are Wolves Again - by E J Swift (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

* WINNER of the 2026 Arthur C. Clarke Award *
* WINNER of the Best Novel Award from the British Science Fiction Association *
* A Guardian best science fiction book of 2025 *

"Vivid, tremendous, unforgettable" - KIM STANLEY ROBINSON

Decades from now, two women sit beside a campfire and reflect on their life stories.

Activist Lucy's earliest memories are of living with her grandparents during the 2020 pandemic and discovering her grandmother's love of birds. Filmmaker Hester was born on the day of the Chornobyl explosion and visits the site years later to film its feral dogs in the Exclusion Zone. Here she meets Lux, the wolf dog who will give her life meaning.

Over half a century, their journeys take them from London to the Highlands to Somerset, through protests, family rifts, and personal tragedy. Lucy joins the fight to restore Britain's depleted natural habitats and revive the species who once shared the island, whilst Hester strives to give a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves.

Both dream of a time when there are wolves again.

A novel of life and of hope, WHEN THERE ARE WOLVES AGAIN is perfect for fans of How High We Go In The Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu and Orbital by Samantha Harvery.

Review Quotes

"When There Are Wolves Again is an extraordinary novel, compassionate, urgent, and beautifully written, both intimate and sweeping in its depiction of our natural world and the two women who fight to save it. It has perfectly merged literary and speculative fiction into an instant classic."
--Lavie Tidhar, author of Maror

"When There Are Wolves Again is another of E.J. Swift's beautifully written, moving and eloquent letters to the natural world, and to the power of humanity to address the damage we inflict upon it. The Chernobyl disaster, extrapolated into a vividly realized near-future world, brings two unforgettable characters into a narrative of exploration, reparation and hope. Swift gets better and better."
--Adam Roberts, author of Lake of Darkness

"When There Are Wolves Again is by turns tragic, terrifying, uplifting, poetic, vast in its ambition and devastatingly human in its scale. It carries you along in an almost dream-like state through the best and the worst of the humanity in an age of crisis, imagining a future both heartbreaking and in the end, full of urgent, soaring hope."
--Claire North, author of The Last Song of Penelope

"When There Are Wolves Again is gentle and inspiring eco-fiction. Full of charm and intimate detail, with exquisitely written relationships, both human and lupine. You'll never look at rewilding the same way. This is a book full of hope, sorely needed in a world that seems to lack it."--Tade Thompson, author of Rosewater

"A remarkable work. Beautifully written and sensitively observed, it demonstrates how great speculative fiction can speak to our present and prepare us for the future. Swift has written a powerful and necessary novel, one that beautifully captures the precarity of our current times whilst anticipating and preparing us for the struggles that will inevitably come ahead. It confirms Swift as one of modern speculative fiction's key visionaries, and as one of our most engagingly human writers."
--Fantasy Hive

"Confirming E. J. Swift's standing as a writer of urgent, beautifully crafted eco-fiction, her latest novel is haunted by the legacy of Chornobyl. When There Are Wolves Again suggests a new beauty might lie within our reach if we commit, as do Swift's characters, to rewilding, species reintroduction, activism of one sort or another, and a dutiful stewardship of the land. I'm left with a much-needed feeling of optimism."--Anne Charnock, author of Dreams Before the Start of Time

"One of our best writers. Her new novel more than lives up to the expectations generated by its predecessor [The Coral Bones]."
--ParSec Magazine

"Poetic, passionate and incredibly thoughtful . . . Swift's insights are considered, plausible, and in the end affirmatory. Her writing, tied indivisibily as it is to her personal convictions, goes from strength to strength."
--Nina Allan, author of Conquest

"Swift's exquisite writing brings life to everything from soil to sky... It's a novel to make you touch grass, and dream of wolves."
--SFX

"The most important, the most courageous, the most uplifting novel I have read in years...one of the UK's brightest younger talents in speculative fiction."
--Strange Horizons

"This book is powered by a passionate love of nature and deep concern for the planet's future . . . Evocative and beautifully written, this character-driven novel also inspires as an argument for rewilding in Britain."
--The Guardian

"Vivid, tremendous, unforgettable."--Kim Stanley Robinson, author of The Ministry for the Future

"Wonderful . . . this is what science fiction should be doing now . . . a novel that tackles head-on the hard problem of writing about the near future; it does so with clarity, creativity, an eye for detail, and unfailing empathy."
--Locus

"Written with deep care and fierce hope, When There Are Wolves Again offers thoughtful answers to urgent questions about our future. It's a joy to read - effortlessly controlled and textured, moving in its details yet bold in scope - and a brilliant example of what can be done with the tools of speculative fiction."
--Matt Hill, author of Lamb

About the Author

E. J. Swift is an author based in London. Her short fiction has been nominated for The Sunday Times short story award. Her previous novels include Paris Adrift and The Coral Bones, which was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Kitschies' Red Tentacle, and the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel.