Books of the Month

'The Tenderness of Wolves' by Stef Penney

Looking for an atmospheric page-turner to curl up with this winter? You could do a lot worse than Stef Penney's compelling debut novel, The Tenderness of Wolves.

Set in the snowy wilderness of rural nineteenth century Canada, the book weaves several gripping plots together. Mrs Ross discovers the body of her murdered trapper neighbour, and returns home to discover her son has vanished. Is he connected with the killing? Does he know something? Frustrated by the lack of action being taken by the men around her, Mrs Ross - middle-aged, heavy, and far from experienced at camping or trekking - takes off after him through the snow. As well as the murder mystery though, we discover another story of two long-missing sisters, the possibility of an amazing discovery about a native American culture. And there's also an unlikely love story - or rather, a series of unlikely love stories. And never far from the characters prowl the wolves which help give the book such a sense of dangerous foreboding.

I thoroughly enjoyed the development of Mrs Ross's character. She's a rather spiky, not immediately likeable woman, with plenty of flaws and hinted-at unreliabilities, but her bravery and moral courage cannot be disputed, and her relationships with the men around her (in particular with the tracker Parker) are very convincing.

It's not surprising that this book won Stef Penney the Cost Book of the Year Award. You might be a little surprised, however, to learn that Penney, a long-term agoraphobic, has never visited Canada. All I can say is she has a remarkable gift for imagining landscapes and atmopsheres. This is an intelligent, enthralling, and memorable book which resists the expected narrative paths and is all the stronger for it.

Susan Tranter

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