The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall

For almost a decade, zoologist Rachel Caine has lived a solitary existence far from her estranged family in England, monitoring wolves in a remote section of Idaho as part of a wildlife recovery program. But a surprising phone call takes her back to the peat and wet light of the Lake District where she grew up. The eccentric Earl of Annerdale has a controversial scheme to reintroduce the Grey Wolf to the English countryside, and he wants Rachel to spearhead the project.

I've long had an interest in the ongoing conversation regarding the reintroduction of wolves into the wild in Britain, particularly in Scotland, and to see these often frustratingly circular discussions come to fruition in The Wolf Border was magical.

Hall's writing is effortlessly evocative; reminiscent of Matt Bell's in its demands that you read slowly and carefully. There is so much packed into this book, far beyond the confines of wildlife conservation. Hall's examination of the human condition in parallel with the lives of the new wolf pack is deftly presented in her wonderful prose, and her vision of a world in which the campaign for Scottish independence was successful cut very close to the bone.

My first Sarah Hall but definitely not my last.

This was supposed to be about wolves but was mainly about some boring baby. I feel duped.

Extra star for all the wolf facts though.

Perhaps, my ultimate opinion of this books suffers from my expectations that there would be more about wolves in this book, whereas there was just the barest hint about those awesome animals.

This book does have it's merits. The story of a woman who has long been something of a wild herself, but who opens up to her brother a boyfriend over the course of the novel in parallel with the re-release of Wolves into northern England is interesting. However, I never did end up liking Rachel. While liking a character isn't required (who can say they like

Sarah Hall has stylistic tics, which ended up distracting me and may not have been noticeable in the hands of a more capable author. First, she never uses quotation marks or any other form of punctuation to designate dialogue. Even a dash signifying the beginning of dialogue would have been welcome. I'm not sure what her intent is with the style, but it didn't work for me.