A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2023 FOR FINANCIAL TIMES, TIME, VULTURE, LIT HUB, GOODREADS, RUMPUS, BUSTLE, READER'S DIGEST and more
Both vilified and venerated, wolves abound through cultural folklore and literature. In this hauntingly lyrical and unflinching inquiry, Erica Berry untangles these depictions - alongside her own research of the wolf and experience as a woman - to try to understand how we navigate terror, vulnerability and violence in our fragile, often dangerous world.
Luminously wise and unusually brave, Wolfish will stay with you long into the night.
"Berry draws on a huge, rich depository of lupine literature. Wolfish is more than just an interesting exercise in cultural anthropology, though. The book's most obvious ancestor is Helen Macdonald's megahit of 2014, H Is for Hawk; it has that same intellectual range and a prose style that pushes [. . .] towards the poetic" - * Sunday Times *
"Startling in its scope, covering everything from fairy tales to domestic violence. This book should be required reading" - * LA Times *
"Ranging far and wide culturally in the company of wolves . . . Berry segues effortlessly from the reintroduction of wolves at Yellowstone national park to Pliny the Elder's belief that wolves held pharmacological benefits for women's bodies" - * Guardian *
"Singular . . . a book entirely its own" - * TIME *
"Explores the contours of human relationships - and what it means to be a woman - through this most familiar yet mysterious of creatures" - * Financial Times *
"Terror propels Erica Berry's exhilarating book . . . No matter where Berry weaves, she sniffs out fascinating insights. And she writes about it in clear, beautiful language" - * Washington Post *
"Berry's braided approach renders Wolfish both a vulnerable self-investigation and a wide-ranging exploration of fear - and, ultimately, an antidote to it. She makes a stirring case for walking alongside the symbolic wolf" - * Atlantic *