Recommendation: ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES by Charlotte McConaghy

ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES by Charlotte McConaghy follows lead biologist Inti Flynn, her traumatized twin sister Aggie, and fourteen gray wolves as they are transplanted into the remote Scottish Highlands in an effort to rewild the landscape—and save it from decline. When novels are so mission-driven, they can sometimes suffer from characters that are only vehicles for their concept. However, Inti and the tight-knit community of Scottish farmers she confronts are both full of their own agency and beautifully nuanced. Inti has a neurological disorder called mirror touch synesthesia. She literally feels what others around her feel, instilling a strong sense of empathy that conflicts with the hardened heart of a survivor.

I HIGHLY recommend this book and the author’s first, MIGRATIONS. McConaghy is one of the best writers to tackle our Anthropocene Epoch with the artistry of a master storyteller.

“I wrote this novel out of a sense of profound distress over the loss of our natural world. I wanted to imagine an effort to rewild a landscape, such as the ones brave conservations are attempting throughout the world…I’d like to specifically thank the extraordinary team at Yellowstone National Park. After seventy years without wolves, in 1995 they achieved the almost impossible feat of reintroducing these essentials predators to an environment in crisis, and have breathed new life into the land.”

—Charlotte McConaghy