Inside the Wolf, Amy Rowland
Inside the Wolf, Amy Rowland
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Inside the Wolf

Author: Amy Rowland

Narrator: Hillary Huber

Unabridged: 6 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/11/2023


Synopsis

A haunting, "exquisitely written" novel that explores the true costs of tradition, gun ownership, masculinity, and Southern mythmaking through the lens of an accidental shooting that reverberates across generations (Fiona McFarlane, author of The Night Guest).​

Rachel Ruskin never intended to return to her family’s tobacco farm in Shiloh, North Carolina. But when her academic career studying Southern folklore in New York City flames out, she has no choice. Back in her hometown in the wake of family loss, she is alone, haunted by memories, by ghosts, and by Shiloh’s buried history of racism and violence.

When another child is accidentally shot and killed, however, Rachel can no longer avoid confronting her own past wrongs; nor can she continue to hold herself apart from her community. How can the people of Shiloh reconcile their love of hunting and their belief in tradition with the loss of more children? How can she find a way back to those she grew up loving? Drawn into the rhythms of Shiloh and in search of a place to be-long, Rachel must question everything she grew up believing and at the same time find a way to accept those around her.

Haunting, fierce, and urgently topical, Inside the Wolf is a page-turning and redemptive novel about masculinity, guns, violence—and the American past. 

Reviews

Goodreads review by Nursebookie on August 23, 2024

Inside The Wolf by Amy Rowland Inside The Wolf is a tough read with heavy themes about gun violence and accidental shooting. I enjoyed the voice of Rachel the narrator who comes to grip with her past, back to her family’s tobacco farm in Shiloh, North Carolina. It is a story about community, traumas, a......more

Goodreads review by Martie on September 20, 2023

Genre: Southern Fiction Publisher: Algonquin Books Pub. Date: July 11, 2023 Martie's Rating" 3 1/2 Stars As the novel states, “We are born innocent. Then life has its way with us.” This is a poetically written novel about a woman haunted by her southern roots. Rachel Ruskin is our 42-year-old protagonis......more

Goodreads review by Star on September 08, 2023

Thank you NetGalley and Algonquin Books for accepting my request to read and review Inside the Wolf. Overall an interesting story, however, long. Repeatedly the characters pretend their business is private and the whole town is oblivious. This is not the case; the townspeople all know each others se......more

Goodreads review by Elsa on May 23, 2023

I received an ARC from Goodreads ❤️ This is a heavy book that confronts the reality of the South’s history and culture, reflecting on how for years, those of us that live here have created myths about our own history to soften the brutal blow of its truth. The story ultimately is about facing and gri......more

Goodreads review by Marjorie on June 18, 2023

This is a poetically written novel about a woman haunted by the past. It's a timely look at the South's perception of guns and community. To those who are sensitive to animal distress, do know that there are disturbing scenes in this book but for once, I do see why these scenes were included by the......more


Quotes

"Devastating and moving. An unsparing glimpse into a community fractured by its troubled past; a story populated by those seeking salvation from the traumas that haunt them. This is a novel that stuck with me long after I’d finished reading."—Nathan Harris, author of The Sweetness of Water

"At once elegiac and hopeful, Inside the Wolf is a raw, moving meditation on the dangerous myths we make as families and communities. A wise book, exquisitely written."—Fiona McFarlane, author of The Night Guest and The Sun Walks Down

"There may or may not be wolves in North Carolina but they haunt Rachel, the narrator and, finally, the heroine of Inside the Wolf. I love the cunning structure of this novel and the wonderful intelligence with which Amy Rowland explores what it means to live in a place where everyone knows your past. I couldn’t wait to see what her richly imagined characters would do next."—Margot Livesey, author of The Boy in the Field

“Inside the Wolf is a compulsively readable meditation on regret, grief, and the love/hate relationship so many of us have with our home-places. Rowland’s tight, propulsive prose carries us to a brilliantly realized place that examines concepts of history, myth, and folklore through the lens of a complex, endearing main character. This novel is hard to put down and stays with you long after the last page is turned.”—Silas House, author of Lark Ascending