Once There Were Wolves by
Charlotte McConaghy
Pub Date "0 January 2022
Inti Flynn arrives in the Scottish Highlands with fourteen grey wolves, a traumatised sister and fierce tenacity.
As a biologist, she knows the animals are the best hope for rewilding the ruined landscape, and she cares little for local opposition. As a sister, she hopes the remote project will offer her twin, Aggie, a chance to heal after the horrific events that drove them both out of Alaska.
But violence dogs their footsteps, and one night Inti stumbles over the body of a farmer. Unable to accept that her wolves could be responsible, she makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn't make the kill, then who did? And can she trust the man she is beginning to love when he becomes the main suspect?
Propulsive and unforgettable, Once There Were Wolves is the spellbinding story of a woman desperate to save her family, the wild animals and the natural world she loves, at any cost.
I found this book disappointing; the synopsis captured my interest, but it didn't work for me. I was not too fond of the writing style and felt no connection with the characters. But, of course, this is my personal opinion; I am glad others have enjoyed it.
I want to thank NetGalley, Random House UK, Vintage and author Charlotte McConaghy for a pre-publication copy to review.

Once there were wolves in Scotland, and Inti hopes that this will be the day when there will be wolves again. She and her team will release fourteen wolves into a landscape ravaged by deer and man in a hope to heal the land. But it’s not just the land that needs healing, for Inti and her twin sister Aggie have horrors in their past.

Trigger warning for rape, domestic abuse and animal deaths.

When driven by fear what are you capable of? And what will you do to protect what you love?

Charlotte McConaghy knows how to make me cry with her beautiful writing and she is fast becoming an instant-buy author. After following the Arctic Terns in Migrations, she now turns her pen towards the wolf, following a team trying to reintroduce them to Scotland. With no large predators in Scotland, the deer can get out of control and eat everything in sight, preventing rewilding success. In theory the wolves will keep the deer population in check, allowing other flora and fauna the chance to move in.

Of course, wolves come with a reputation, and there are objections from the locals. Mostly farmers worried for their livestock, and livelihoods, but also others who fear that the wolves will attack humans.

At first I felt it was a bit us versus them. Inti doesn’t give the locals much of a chance, instantly defensive, she judges their fear, their dislike of the wolves. It is all told from her perspective, so it is not balanced, but as she spends time amongst them, she does start to hear more supportive voices, and most of those she judged harshly come out OK. It speaks of passion and fear.

I totally understand that sheep farmers would worry about the presence of wolves, but there are also a lot of traditional farmers who want to support conservation. It’s implied that the land is dying and rewilding is its last hope. It’s no good raising sheep if there’s nothing for the sheep to eat.

Inti has mirror touch synaesthesia, which means she wrongly interprets sensations she sees as those of her own. When her father gutted a rabbit, she felt like she was being gutted. This has made it hard for her to form relationships, but has also given her more empathy to the natural world.

The story mostly deals with the release of the wolves and what happens when Inti finds a man dead in the woods. Was it the wolves or is there a human killer on the loose? She can’t bear for it to be the wolves, if anyone thought so it would be the end of the project and all the wolves would be killed for sure.

Through flashbacks, we also learn about Inti and Aggie’s life before, growing up with their father in the wilds of Alaska, how Inti deals with her condition and what happened to take away Aggie’s voice.

Incredibly moving, at the same time exploring man’s impact on the natural world, I loved Once There Were Wolves.

Disappointing. This book sounded really interesting but, unfortunately, it didn't work for me. I did not like the writing style nor could I connect with the characters. That is just me opinion and I'm sure many people will thoroughly enjoy it.
This is an honest review of a complementary ARC.

A bit of a mixed genre in this read, murder mystery, romance and crossed with literary fiction. The Highlands of Scotland was a lovely setting but I really disliked the two main characters, Inti and Aggie. The style of writing just failed to work and I am sure that others will disagree. It is a topical subject and there are various groups who would like to see wolves reintroduced in Scotland but overall, not my favourite read. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

Inti and her team travel to Scotland with a number of wolves as part of a rewilding project, which they see as a way to return the environment to a more natural state. She also brings along her traumatised twin sister, Aggie, who she hopes will be able to recover from a mental breakdown after horrific events in Alaska, from where they have fled. Predictably, the project meets with fear and resistance from the local farming community, and when Inti finds the ravaged body of a farmer in the woods, she is terrified that all she has worked for will be destroyed, and so takes drastic action to protect her beloved animals. This both a moving and powerful novel, with vivid characters and a gripping central mystery. The insight into wolves is fascinating- they tend to get a bad press, but are here shown to be brave, loyal and highly intelligent, as well as beautiful. This is in contrast to some of the humans in the story, whose behaviour can be ugly, violent and selfish. The ecological message is thought-provoking, but doesn’t come across as didactic or preachy. A passionate love story adds depth and meaning to the human side of the narrative, and the ending is one of hope. A wonderful, involving read.

I found this book both exciting and thought provoking. It was interesting to read a story about nature and the reintroduction of wolves in Scotland. It highlighted the importance of predators for the entire ecosystem and how the author cares about climate and our environment with detailed research.
Well written and a mystery to solve as well.

Book synopsis:

A wild and gripping novel about one woman's quest to reintroduce wolves to the Scottish Highlands at any cost

Inti Flynn arrives in the Scottish Highlands with fourteen grey wolves, a traumatised sister and fierce tenacity.

As a biologist, she knows the animals are the best hope for rewilding the ruined landscape and she cares little for local opposition. As a sister, she hopes the remote project will offer her twin, Aggie, a chance to heal after the horrific events that drove them both out of Alaska.

But violence dogs their footsteps and one night Inti stumbles over the body of a farmer. Unable to accept that her wolves could be responsible, she makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn't make the kill, then who did? And can she trust the man she is beginning to love when he becomes the main suspect?

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an Arc in exchange for an honest opinion

I was really looking forward to reading this one because of the subject matter. This story is about reintroducing wolves to the forests and highlands of Scotland to rebalance nature and biodiversity. Inty Flynn is the lead biologist in the experiment and is accompanied by her twin sister, Aggie. Needless to say the local animal farmers aren't too happy to see them arrive, with fears for their livestock. The story takes a turn when farm animals and a local farmer turn up dead. Part mystery, part literary fiction McConaghy paints a spellbinding picture of mother earth and the beauty of wolves, interposed with the complexity of humans on many levels and capability to punish. Complex characters who were difficult to connect with but developed nicely through the story. Overall beautifully descriptive but a melodramatic ending was somewhat anti climatic and in my opinion didn't honour the rest of the story. Overall a 3.5* for me. Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for this ARC.

I loved this book. It is well written and a real page turner.

The context is the rewilding of the Cairngorms. Inti, a wolf specialist is the lead on a project to reintroduce wolves to encourage natural regrowth of the forest. The tensions set up in local farming community are intertwined with the complex story of Inti and her twin sister, Aggie, and their upbringing by parents living unconventional lives in Australia and Canada. The story becomes a 'whodunnit' when a member of the Cairngorm village is attack and the mystery of who would carry out such a violent attack in this isolated and close community must be solved.

The descriptions of forest ecology in Canada and Cairngorms are entrancing. The way in which trees form a network of roots through which they communicate fascinates me. The significance of top predators in maintaining an ecological balance and enabling the stability of the forest is a hot topic and vital to the health of our planet. This is a book for the general reader but particularly those with an interest in geography, ecology and climate change.

Inti's synaesthesia is key to her reactions and relationships. It provides a mechanism for the author to describe both human and wolf experiences vividly, portraying the beauty of the wolves and the way in which they see their world. This is not a sentimental book, the otherness of the wolf is emphasized.

A stark contrast emerges as a complex drama unfolds between the wolf pack who kill because it is their nature to eat and feed their young, and the humans whose violence reflects their desires and emotional deprivation. There are critical moments where the wolves react on instinct but the human has a choice. Yet the dramatic finale demonstrates that all creatures, including flawed and vulnerable humans, are capable of love.

This complex and delicately balanced tale intrigued me and drew me in. It left me wanting to. know more about rewilding and the introduction of wolves to Scotland, which has been discussed since the 1960's.

It is an adult read with scenes of violence; rape and bloodshed . As the story unfolds, the power of the human spirit to triumph over difficulties is portrayed but so is our tragic vulnerability to trauma. Once There Were Wolves is dramatic and worthwhile from the first page to the end.

There are a lot of things going on in this book, climate change, murder, a love story to name just a few. But I was most happiest reading about the forest, the wolves and all their different ways. There was a lot of violence, tension and misunderstanding in the human world but the wolves just got on with building their new lives in Scotland.
There are a few twists and turns too, which I can't really say about without giving the game away! However they did get me thinking and I wasn't always right!
All in all, aside from the violence (which is not too graphic) I really enjoyed it and would happily read more from this author.

Inti is a young biologist tasked with the reintroduction of wolves into the Scottish highlands. From that synopsis alone, we already think about all of the things that could go wrong. As children, we're taught through fairy tales to be afraid of the big bad wolf. We hear wolf, we think "My, what big teeth you have".

I remember the first time I heard of the idea of biologists reintroducing wolves to different parts of the world where they had been gone for many years. Of course, to the layperson, at first it sounds ludicrous. It's easy to become fixated on the potential negative outcomes. But there's so much more at stake here. A landscape without predators is a stagnant, dying landscape. Nothing moves. Nothing changes. Resources become overused and nature forgets how to grow.

Introduce the wolf, and everything changes.

Such is the story of Once There Were Wolves.

It's easy to tell that McConaghy loves her planet. From the premise of the story, to the details spotted throughout. I learned so much from this story, the behaviours of animals that I'd heard of but never thought about, the colours of different flowers and the seasons in which they bloom. There's a real care for the landscape, for the animals, a real kindness that comes from the pages that it's easy to tell is in no way part of the fiction of this story.

The story here moves quickly. At no point did I feel as though it dragged. I looked down to read, and when I looked up, I was finished. It's a relatively short novel, and no pages are wasted. It's part contemporary literature, part murder mystery and it interweaves stories of family, of sisterhood, romance, the natural world and violence.

I found some of the writing to feel slightly cliché and overdramatic, but that's truly just a personal preference. I know that there will be many out there who will love this book, and I think it's worth the read not just for the story, but for the message it conveys.

I hadn’t anticipated a literary thriller when I picked this one up. I was expecting a story about wolves, rewilding, conservation - but there is a lot more to this one and it is quite the pageturner.

Inti has relocated from Alaska to the Scottish highlands to embark on a rewilding project, re-establishing a habitat for wolves in Scotland. She brings with her fourteen wolves, a giant chip on her shoulder, a whole heap of unprocessed trauma and her twin sister Aggie, with whom she shares an unbreakable bond for reasons that become apparent in flashbacks to the past as the story builds.

The parts of the book about the wolves were the most interesting to me, the subplot around Inti’s past, less so. There are a lot of abusive men in the book: toxic masculinity is spilling over at every point of the story, it felt a bit much at times.

Having said that, the book is so well-written and just when you think the plot is going one way, it creeps up behind you and take you completely by surprise.

It’s a book that really delivers from a lot of perspectives - the environmental/conservation angle, suspense and intrigue in spades, and a romance to boot. The setting is very atmospheric, there’s a mythical, magical quality to it. So while I wasn’t hugely emotionally invested in the characters, I did keep turning pages until the very end. Thought-provoking and gripping. 4/5 ⭐️

*Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy will be published here on 20 January 2022. Many thanks to the author, the publisher @vintagebooks and @netgalley for an advance digital copy. As always, this is an honest review.*

This is a beautifully written and visceral story that captures both the pain of destruction and the passionate hope that it’s not too late to repair our planet and heal ourselves.
Inti and her twin sister, Aggie, have come to the Scottish Highlands together. Inti is a biologist who is reintroducing wolves into the area in order to breathe life back into it and slow climate change. Her sister is not part of this. She needs to heal following a brutal violent assault.
As Inti and her team set to work, they come up against the locals who see wolves as a threat. When livestock and then people start being attacked, tension mounts.
The stories of the sisters, the local people and the wolves are intertwined with great effect. It is often very violent and there’s a lot of anger and sometimes little hope. On occasion, it feels as if everyone in the book is a predator.
Inti has a neurological condition, mirror-touch-synaesthesia, causing her to interpret every sensation she sees as if it were happening to her own body. If someone gets a nosebleed in front of her, she puts her own hands to her face, expecting blood, feeling pain.
Because she finds it hard to distinguish between herself and others and to separate her own experiences from those of others, I sometimes felt too mired in everyone’s emotions. I missed that gap that comes when a fictional character wonders what another fictional character is feeling and you, the reader, wonder alongside them. Inti never has to wonder – she knows. She feels it. It meant as a reader that I was pulled away from an event that was happening outside and constantly pulled back to her.
It also meant that Inti’s perception of herself was almost non-existent, as if she was made up of other identities she’d acquired without meaning to. If she was feeling sad, was it her own sadness?
It must be a massively frightening and overwhelming condition to suffer from and I think the author did a wonderful job of portraying it, but it made me feel so claustrophobic at times that I had to put the book down.
Overall, I am full of admiration for the amount of research, for the passion, for the sentence level beauty of the writing. And for the fact I got closer to feeling what it might be like to be a wolf than I’ve ever felt before.

I'd really enjoyed Charlotte McConaghy's previous book and was looking forward to this new novel. Just like Migrations, it's a beautifully-written, psychologically-astute book. Charlotte McConaghy excels at describing how trauma can result in life-destroying trusting issues through her twin characters. I also enjoyed learning about the behaviour of wolves and found the descriptions of the forest beautiful. However, Once There Were Wolves does test your suspension of disbelief. The police part of the plot isn't very realistic and sometimes makes you feel like you're watching an American Netflix series rather than reading a literary novel set in Scotland. I still found it gripping, but was a bit disappointed by the way things were all wrapped up nicely, something that would never happen in real life under the same circumstances. In my eyes, this unrealistic plot clashes with the very real need to rewild that is at the heart of the novel.

I found this book both exciting and thought provoking. The story are about identical twins who are so alike in nature but so different.

Inti feels everything and loves the wild outdoors and wolves un particular. Her dream is to rewild wolves on the Scottish Highlands. Though very current in relation to saving wildlife and the ecology it is the story of 2 sisters.

I really enjoyed reading it. I can't remember ever reading a book quite like this.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me an advance copy in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Migrations was my favourite novel of 2020. Charlotte McConaghy's new book is tough, wild, angry and sad, but just beautifully written. She's quickly becoming one of my favourite contemporary writers and I recommend her to everyone who loves great literature about people and nature.

This was a really unusual story. It involves a biologist Inti Flynn originally from New Zealand who has moved to a very remote area of the Scottish Highlands along with her severely traumatised twin sister Aggie. Inti is part of a team trying to introduce a pack of Canandian Wolves into the Scottish wilds. Inti has a condition called "mirror touch synaesthesia" which means she can feel a similar sensation in her body as does another person. Inti can experience what the animals and her wolves are feeling. One night she discovers the body of a local farmer who has been killed. Suspicion falls on the wolves and Inti decides to protect them. The narrative follows the fallout from this decision, flashbacks as we learn what happened to traumatize Aggie and discover if Inti's love interest had any part in the killing of the farmer.

I am in awe of the devastating power of Charlotte McConaghy’s storytelling, of the unnerving atmosphere of fear conjured, the deep passion for the wolves and their landscape that radiates from Inti, of the courage to survive woven through her and Aggie. The use of Inti’s mirror-touch magnifies the violence and foreboding, without resorting to gratuitous blood and gore, yet deepens the darkness and tension, a really clever device. Utterly engrossing and captivating, I’m not sure I’ll read another novel that will move me quite as much as this.

I thought this book sounded really different. Maybe it was too different for me, as I just couldn't connect with it. Really disappointed that I didn't enjoy it, and hope other readers like it more.

Inti Flynn heads a programme to bring wolves back to the Scottish Highlands. The story follows her as she grapples with the animosity of the region's local people who fear the wolves will threaten their livestock and livelihoods. The reader learns how Inti has to care for her twin sister and why she has become 'silent'. There is suspense, intrigue, violence and even a little uneasy romance so that the reader will want to keep turning the pages until the end.

This, like the author's debut novel, The Last Migration, is fictional nature writing at its best. Looking forward, already, to Charlotte McConaghy's next book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Vintage Books for the ARC.

A tense mystery unravelling against the backdrop of a plan to rewild Scotland with the re-introduction of wolves. Inti's world is driven by her desire to rebalance long lost ecosystems. Her views have grown from a childhood spending time separately with her two quite different parents. This novel looks closely at nature and nurture from a very human perspective. What results is an evocative page turner where the Scottish landscape becomes a powerful character in an unfolding and intriguing plot. I loved it.