When Desire Mensah, a disgraced school teacher in her thirties, meets Wolfgang “Wolf” Ofori, an eleven-year-old genius, a strange friendship develops between them. Set in 1990s Ghana, The Wolf at Number 4 is a chilling and funny gothic tale that forces us to confront whether the wolves around us are born or made.

Desire Mensah, a disgraced schoolteacher in her thirties, sees moving to sleepy little Cape Coast, Ghana, as her chance to get away from a shameful secret not buried deeply enough. And maybe, just maybe, she will find the love she craves and the husband her mother craves for her.
But in Cape Coast, the past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past. That’s the kind of thing Wolfgang “Wolf” Ofori would say. Everyone says the eleven-year-old is a genius—eccentric though he is—and is bound to win Wonderkids, a quiz competition ordinarily for high school students. Wolf and Desire form a strange friendship, even as their mutual understanding both precipitates and reinforces the downfall of each. Before long, their struggles to exist in a world that dehumanizes and then throws the first stone whip up a perfect storm, with deadly consequences.
Debut novelist Ayo Tamakloe-Garr drew inspiration from works such as A Streetcar Named Desire and Frankenstein to create The Wolf at Number 4, a story set in 1990s Ghana. The result is a chilling and funny gothic tale that will disarm readers even as it forces them to confront whether the wolves around us are born or made.

"“The Wolf at Number 4 is … a debut novel that, like many of the best debuts, manages to be simultaneously surprising and familiar … [It] manages to present dark material sincerely but also with a great deal of humor. Don’t miss it.”" - Literary Hub

"“The Wolf at Number 4 brings together … disparate influences, from 19th century Gothic fiction to the plays of Tennessee Williams, to tell the story of an unlikely bond that forms between two people whose paths cross in the city of Cape Coast, Ghana. The resulting narrative takes a host of twists along the way, blending the familiar with the unexpected.”" - Vol. 1 Brooklyn

"“Tamakloe-Garr is one of a new wave of African authors … deservedly beginning to reach a wider international audience.… The story, a blend of humour and unsettling Gothic darkness, zips along as Desire’s life descends further and further into chaos and there’s a doozy of a twist at the end.”" - Still Not Fussed

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Praise for previous books in the Modern African Writing series:
“Poignant, thrilling, and funny.…Nwokolo manages to brilliantly distill his branching plot into a singular portrayal of a threatened culture.”

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Praise for previous books in the Modern African Writing series:
“A fresh and moving account of contemporary Zimbabwe.”

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Praise for previous books in the Modern African Writing series:
“The collected stories structure recalls David Mitchell's Ghostwritten, or Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad.…A layered, multifaceted narrative.”

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Praise for previous books in the Modern African Writing series:
“A revelatory work as tough, humane, and unsentimental as its heroines.”