Tell the Wolves I’m Home
ABOUT
THE BOOK
In this striking literary debut, Carol Rifka Brunt unfolds a moving story of love, grief, and renewal as two lonely people become the unlikeliest of friends and find that sometimes you don’t know you’ve lost someone until you’ve found them.
1987. There’s only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus, and that’s her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn’s company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June’s world is turned upside down. But Finn’s death brings a surprise acquaintance into June’s life-someone who will help her to heal, and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart.
At Finn’s funeral, June notices a strange man lingering just beyond the crowd. A few days later, she receives a package in the mail. Inside is a beautiful teapot she recognizes from Finn’s apartment, and a note from Toby, the stranger, asking for an opportunity to meet. As the two begin to spend time together, June realizes she’s not the only one who misses Finn, and if she can bring herself to trust this unexpected friend, he just might be the one she needs the most.
An emotionally charged coming-of-age novel, Tell the Wolves I’m Home is a tender story of love lost and found, an unforgettable portrait of the way compassion can make us whole again.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
Tell the Wolves I’m Home is a beautiful novel of love and loss. Sensitively told and with a suspenseful plot.
The story is engrossing and deeply moving. Brunt’s writing makes you feel right along with the characters and their pain becomes yours. This book tackles complicated issues and excels at everything; dynamic characters, quality writing, strong narration and a great storyline.
A poignant novel that explores the early days of the AIDs crisis through the eyes of a young teenager. Tell the Wolves I’m Home beautifully captures the shifting worlds and emotions of adolescence.
Everyone has the need to express love. When one finds a way to communicate feeling outside of traditional means it often gives birth to art. In relationships one adapts this love to communicate different aspects of ourselves and transform lives. Tell the Wolves I’m Home is a story about overcoming barriers to communication, reconciling relationships, and transcending traditional outlets for expressing love.
This coming-of-age novel is a debut that gets the details of being a teenage girl on the cusp of change and revelatory self-knowledge so right. It’s the 1980s and June Elbus is 14 when her beloved uncle Finn dies of AIDs. The connection that June and Finn shared becomes the centrepiece for this powerful, nuanced novel about first love and loss.