"The History of Wolves" by Emily Fridlund is Short Listed for Man Booker, A Howling Unforgettable Tale

 "The History of Wolves" ('17) is a daring & haunting novel by Emily Fridlund (b Amer. 1979) was shortlisted for this year's Man Booker Award.  The story is set in the northern outreaches of MN, where the harsh winters are relentless & unforgiving.  Madeline, also known as "Linda" or more commonly as "freak" or "commie" by her high school peers.  But mainly, Madeline is disregarded & left by herself.  Linda lives with her father & mother & several hounds on an abandoned failed commune on an isolated lake.  Fridlund's remarkable writing deviates from any formulaic coming of age tale. Linda was reared apart from childhood playmates leaving her feeling lonely & unanchored.   Linda found "No help from the boredom. No changing from loneliness." Linda's sole companionship is with the dogs she cares for at home.  She's adrift and at a loss for attachment.  Linda is first drawn to the new teacher whom she makes a weak attempt to seduce.  Then a young family moves into a cabin across the lake.  The mother Patra enlists Linda to help sit for her 4 year old son Paul.  Linda finds a moor in Patra's attention & Paul's neediness.  Linda's formed familial bonds are shattered by the arrival of Patra's husband Leo and stalactites of pending horror bear down.  Fridlund's brittle handling theological questions on the origins of good & evil, christianity and the nuclear family are haunting and pristine.  Linda is coerced to conceive of "Heaven and hell are ways of thinking.  Death is the false belief that anything could ever end."  And, "It's not what you do but what you think that matters."  Linda finds herself in an untenable situation but realizes "You can't just do whatever you want to someone and get away with it."  We see Linda as a young adult years after her previous encounters.  She is somewhat frozen between self-reliance and commitment.  Wolves hunt out the weak, the sick, the injured and  mostly avoid people.  Fridlund's harrowing & lyrical writing unfurls  a character of inner strength set against a frozen tundra.  The reader is left to slowly thaw from the author's majestic writing.  "The woods just kept unfurling and blooming and drying up and its constant flux of implied meanings 1/2 revealed, 1/2 withheld - mysteries."  I highly recommend this impressive, enigmatic & thought provoking work.