Teenage Linda lives with her parents in the beautiful, austere woods of northern Minnesota, where their nearly abandoned commune stands as a last vestige of a lost counterculture world. Al Woodworth, The Amazon Book Review From the Back Cover: A remarkable novel, that just so happens to be a debut, by a fiercely talented writer. Fridlund masterfully ratchets up the tension, exploding this story of secrets and girlhood with crisp, cutting prose that will leave you shocked and in awe. Outside of school, Linda begins to spend time with a young boy and his mother who moved into a house across the lake, but their family, like her teacher, are not as they appear. But her life of solitude cracks open when her history teacher-whom she fantasizes about-is charged with child pornography. Linda is a loner, a teenage girl who walks to school and lives on a failed commune in the woods. There is a constant sense of foreboding, of wondering when the truth will crash through the Minnesota ice. It’s propulsive, vividly written, laced with a razor’s chill and filled with imagery that’s impossible to forget. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title.Īn Amazon Best Book of January 2017: History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund is exactly the kind of book you want to curl up with in the winter. Winner of the McGinnis-Ritchie award for its first chapter, Emily Fridlund’s propulsive and gorgeously written History of Wolves introduces a new writer of enormous range and talent. As she struggles to find a way out of the sequestered world into which she was born, Linda confronts the life-and-death consequences of the things people do and fail to do for the people they love. Over the course of a few days, Linda makes a set of choices that reverberate throughout her life.

It seems that her life finally has purpose but with this new sense of belonging she is also drawn into secrets she doesn’t understand. Grierson is charged with possessing child pornography, the implications of his arrest deeply affect Linda as she wrestles with her own fledgling desires and craving to belong.Īnd then the young Gardner family moves in across the lake and Linda finds herself welcomed into their home as a babysitter for their little boy, Paul. Isolated at home and an outlander at school, Linda is drawn to the enigmatic, attractive Lily and new history teacher Mr. What powerful tension and depth this provides!” Aimee Benderįourteen-year-old Linda lives with her parents in the beautiful, austere woods of northern Minnesota, where their nearly abandoned commune stands as a last vestige of a lost counter-culture world. So delicately calibrated and precisely beautiful that one might not immediately sense the sledgehammer of pain building inside this book.