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  • Published: 3 August 2021
  • ISBN: 9781761043222
  • Imprint: Hamish Hamilton
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $32.99

Once There Were Wolves




**A Journey into the Wild and the Human Heart**


From the author of the international bestseller Migrations comes a pulse-pounding new novel set in the wild Scottish Highlands

INDIE FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNER 2022

"So damn good" Jeff VanderMeer, NYT bestselling author
"Changes you as you read." Laurie Frankel, NYT bestselling author
"This is a stunner." Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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Ecology Meets Mystery


Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team tasked with reintroducing fourteen grey wolves into the remote Highlands. She hopes to heal not only the dying landscape but also her emotionally wounded sister. Inti herself has changed; she may be the one who needs rewilding.

A Community in Turmoil


Facing strong opposition from the locals, Inti's wolves defy expectations by not just surviving but thriving. Inti lowers her defences, warming to new experiences and emotions, including love. Yet, when a local farmer is discovered dead, the finger-pointing begins. Refusing to believe her wolves are at fault, Inti takes a risky step to shield them, putting her instincts to the ultimate test.

A Tangled Web of Blame


If her wolves didn't cause the death, who did? Matters complicate further when a man she's become involved with emerges as a prime suspect.

A Story That Will Stay with You


Propulsive and spellbinding, this is an unforgettable tale of a woman desperate to save the creatures she loves. Part thriller, part redemptive love story, Charlotte McConaghy's profoundly affecting novel will stay with you forever.

Why It Resonates


Achieving both literary and commercial acclaim, Once There Were Wolves serves as a compelling commentary on the urgent issues of environmental rewilding and violence against women. Brilliantly blending genres, this novel is perfect for fans of Emily St. John Mandel, Evie Wyld, and Hannah Kent.

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Additional Acclaim


"A gripping and emotionally resonant journey." James Bradley, Sydney Morning Herald
"A suspenseful and poignant narrative." Scientific American
"Filled with ravishing descriptions of the landscape." Booklist
"A powerful meditation on humanity and nature." BookPage (starred review)
"Poetic... A lovely, gripping tale." Kirkus (starred review)
"Suspenseful... Urges us to take a lesson from the wolves." BookRiot
  • Published: 3 August 2021
  • ISBN: 9781761043222
  • Imprint: Hamish Hamilton
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $32.99

About the author

Charlotte McConaghy

Charlotte McConaghy is the author of the New York Times Bestseller Once There Were Wolves, winner of the Indie Book Award for Fiction 2022 and a Nautilus Gold Award, and the international bestseller Migrations, a TIME Magazine Best Book of the Year and the Amazon.com Best Fiction Book of the Year for 2020, which is being translated into over twenty languages and adapted for film. She has both a Graduate Degree in Screenwriting and a Masters Degree in Screen Arts, and lives in Sydney, Australia with her partner and son.

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Praise for Once There Were Wolves

So damn good. A page-turner that makes you think and has a huge emotional impact.

Jeff VanderMeer, New York Times bestselling author of Annihilation (via Twitter)

One of those very rare, special novels that changes you as you read, which you do as slowly as you can because you want to savor it, except the pages keep turning furiously because the story is so thrilling and so powerful, with some of the best characters I have ever read. Charlotte McConaghy has cemented herself as a sure-thing, must-read writer for me.

Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is

Vividly realized . . . Gorgeously rendered . . . A story full of subtle surprises . . . This is a stunner.

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

It is rare for a book to affect me so deeply I don’t want to talk about it, but truly, this is one of them. I just want to make everyone read it. Reading this felt intimate and life changing. It is quite literally magical, powerful and extraordinary.

Readings bookshop

Vivid and raw with feeling . . . despite the darkness and pain at the heart of McConaghy’s novel, it is not a bleak book. Instead, it bears within it an argument about the possibility of change . . . gripping and often very moving.

James Bradley, Sydney Morning Herald

This heart-pounding novel digs into the complex relationships between humans – and the creatures with which we share the natural world.

Newsweek

Suspenseful and poignant . . . [Inti’s] story unfolds as a meditation on the social and scientific consequences of influencing ecosystems, while reminding us that humans and animals alike can break our hearts.

Scientific American

McConaghy infuses Inti’s adventures with ravishing descriptions of the landscape and the ‘infinite mysteries of wolves’ . . . McConaghy's richly plotted tale of suspense and psychological insight poses provocative questions about predators and humanity's impact on Earth.

Booklist

Intense, emotional and rich with beautifully rendered prose, McConaghy’s novel is a powerful meditation on humanity, nature and the often frightening animalistic impulses lurking within us all . . . Another triumph for a rising fiction star, offering an intensely realized world for readers to get lost in.

BookPage (starred review)

Poetic . . . A lovely, gripping tale about a world that could be our own.

Kirkus (starred review)

A lyrical novel with a wild heart.

PopSugar

A moving, moody story by the author of the 2020 novel Migrations.

AARP

From the author of 2020's gorgeous Migrations comes a similarly earth-shattering tale of humanity's influence on the natural world.

Thrillist

Urges us to take a lesson from the wolves, and learn to lean on one another.

BookRiot

Blazing . . . McConaghy explores a core dilemma of the Anthropocene era: how to persuade people they should care about the fate of animals . . . Perhaps, she implies, fiction can do what science cannot: engender empathy and, subsequently, action. While McConaghy presents intelligent perspectives on the wisdom of rewilding, the book goes into deeper questions of epistemology . . . We are confronted by the limits of language every day. And as McConaghy shows in this stunning book, the limits of language lead us to the limits of empathy.

Lorraine Berry, Los Angeles Times

Awards & recognition

Sisters in Crime Davitt Award

Winner  •  2022  •  Adult Crime Novel

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