Once There Were Wolves

 

Image credit: Penguin Books Australia

I don’t know if anyone can exactly pin down when the notion of the book club began - let alone the very first gathering that came into being - but, not surprisingly, the formation of the book club is intimately tied to the rights of women to gather and have discussions of things beyond the realms of the kitchen and domestic household. It’s therefore not surprising that when we think about book club, we think about groups of women discussing literature, often in the form of a tea or wine party. 

I bring this up because it ties in with the book that I read this week, having joined a small group of girls from work in establishing our own book club. This chosen book for our first ever discussion was Charlotte McCoaghy’s Once There Were Wolves; an interesting and confronting exploration into trauma, humanity, and climate change. 

The book follows protagonist Inti Flynn, who comes to Scotland with her twin sister Aggie to lead a team of conservationists in their mission to reintroduce wolves to the forests and thus, rewild the Scottish Highlands. Inti hopes that she and Aggie might also benefit from a little ‘rewilding’ themselves. Despite some fierce resistance from the locals, the wolves begin to thrive and it seems that a happy ending is in sight for the girls. But disaster strikes when a local farmer is killed. Inti knows where the blame will be placed, but something about the nature of the kill doesn’t add up, so it’s a race against time for Inti to find a murderer and save her pack. 

Inspired by the devastating changes and trauma that is happening to the world right now, Once There Were Wolves is primarily an exploration into the various complicated relationships of humans. Namely exploring relationships shaped through trauma, the book is rather interesting in that it compares and contrasts generic tropes of the self-discovery story and subverts them so that the happy ending is made more satisfying because it has gone through channels of such bleak and horrific drama. I was reminded a little of Tess of the D’Urbervilles in that all this bad stuff happens to these girls that pushes them so far beyond the realms of resilience that you have to wonder how on earth can they have a happy ending?! McConaghy wraps up their stories nicely, if somewhat questionably and you are left with a sense of satisfaction at the end. 

Image credit: Pan Macmillan Australia

A warning for readers, there are some very confronting scenes in this book – it does actively explore trauma after all – so, while a lot of the violence is implied and not graphically detailed, just be prepared. I found it a bit of a shame in the book’s allegories about tameness, wilderness, and the blows that break spirits that the only way to depict that with Inti and Aggie was through domestic violence and rape, but here we are. Multiple things like this and the maternal themes that were explored kind of rubbed me the wrong way, but I will say that despite all that I was tempted to persevere and actually read the entire thing. 

McConaghy very interestingly explores the nature of humanity: what separates us (or doesn’t) from animals, how we thrive within packs and communities, and how our relationships influence our primal instincts. And while it’s horrific, confronting, and brutal, there’s still something about it that’s resilient and beautiful. 

I don’t think that this is a book that I will keep in my library, however I am glad that I have read it and happy that I have expanded my mind and literary horizons by reading it. 

Author: Charlotte McConaghy, 2021

Published: United States: Flatiron Books, New York. Great Britain: Chatto & Windus, London. Australia: Penguin Random House.