It made for a very dynamic reading experience, and while it could’ve been messy, it didn’t feel that way to me at all. There’s an associative nature to it: as Linda is recounting the main story, something will jog her memory, and we go off on a tangent about her parents, or something that happened in school, for example. The bulk of it takes place in the past, but the narrative is structured in such a way that it’s very clear that we’re dealing with memories here. The main story focuses on Linda as she’s fourteen years old, but this story is actually told by Linda as she’s in her thirties. One of the things that stood out to me most about History of Wolves is its structure. A few weeks ago, the urge to read it crept up on me, and I dived right in.

I have to admit that I kept forgetting about this book, which is also the reason why I put it on my list of 10 books I “have” to read in 2021. This novel was a birthday gift from my parents in that same year, and in the three-and-a-half years since, I haven’t heard anyone talking about it, so I had nothing to go on apart from that nomination. I didn’t have any expectations for History of Wolves before going in, apart from thinking it must have at least some literary merit, since it was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2017. Drawn into secrets she doesn’t understand, Linda must make a choice that will affect the rest of her life… So when a young family – mother, father and little boy Paul – move into the cabin across the lake, Linda insinuates her way into their orbit. Isolated at home and an outsider at school, she is mostly left to her own devices. Fourteen-year-old Linda lives with her parents in an ex-commune beside a lake in the beautiful, austere backwoods of Northern Minnesota.

Emily fridlund books