Genre: Publication.Date July 5th 2016 Pages: 368 Published By: Crown Author Beth Lewis The Wolf Road on Goodreads My review copy: Received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Where to get:
In her debut novel THE WOLF ROAD (July 5, 2016; Crown), author and managing editor at London’s Titan Books Beth Lewis introduces us to a world decimated by an unnamed, apocalyptic event and inhabited by desperate people accustomed to hunting, tracking, and killing to survive. Among them is Elka, the young heroine whose unmistakable voice guides us through the untamed landscape of the area formerly known as British Columbia on her journey to escape the horrors of her own past.
Everything Elka knows of the world she learned from the man she calls Trapper, a solitary hunter who took her under his wing when she was just seven years old. He has taught her how to shoot, track, set snares, and start fires—all the skills necessary to survive in a wild, lawless land where men are at the mercy of the elements and one another. But when wanted posters begin appearing in town, Elka realizes that the man she thinks she knows so well is harboring terrible secrets. The more Elka finds out about him, the less sure she becomes about her own identity—especially as she begins to recover some of the painful memories she’s kept at bay throughout her childhood.
As the horrific facts emerge, Elka makes her escape, armed with nothing but her knife and the survival skills he’s taught her. She sets out in the hope of finding her true parents, who traveled to the frozen north years earlier in pursuit of gold, but Elka can tell by the shadows that follow her that Trapper’s on her trail—and he won’t be letting his little girl go without a fight. As she encounters physical hardships, violence, and loneliness that at times test her sanity, she also strains to distinguish between fact and fiction in her own recollections. Ultimately, she will have to turn and confront not just Trapper but the dark reality of her past.
THE WOLF ROAD is a tautly suspenseful cat-and-mouse tale of justice and revenge, played out against a vast, unforgiving landscape—told by an unforgettable, tough-as-nails young heroine fighting desperately to escape the terrors of her childhood and rejoin humanity.
Interview with Beth Lewis:
1. You’ve traveled around the world and had a lot of crazy encounters with wild animals. How much did your experiences influence the story of The Wolf Road?
I took a solo trip to Canada when I was twenty. I travelled across the country and spent a week camping in the woods near Vancouver Island. Just being immersed in that landscape was a huge inspiration. I fell in love with the area and always wanted to set a book there. I’ve had some pretty fun encounters with wildlife - black bears, whales, great white sharks - and travelled a fair bit but I think those experiences gave me a degree of fearlessness and sense of adventure that I can see in Elka.
2. Elka’s yearning for a loving parental figure drives her throughout this story and is one of the few causes for emotional reactions out of her character. Why do you think this trope of the parentless child is so prevalent in fiction?
Being a parentless child allows a degree of freedom for the character, whether those parents are simply absent or long dead. As well as having a traumatic event, such as losing a parent, or a driving force - trying to find lost parents - it can be a great way to develop a character. But, as with anything, it has to be done for the right reasons and has to be integral to the plot. Having your character be an orphan just so they don’t have a bedtime and can party all night, is not good enough in my mind. Elka’s parentless situation is key to the plot of The Wolf Road. It’s her constant motivation, to find that kind of love and acceptance only a parent can give.
3. Elka feels that she is the reason for the death of many innocents. Do you think she’s right and should take the blame for bringing danger to them?
She’s partially right. I think Elka willfully didn’t see what was happening around her. She also didn’t turn in Kreagar when she discovered his guilt and instead ran away from the truth. He’s someone without conscience or moral code whereas Elka has quite a strong moral compass - she just chose to ignore it rather than face up to what Kreagar was and her part (if any) in his crimes. I think she is to blame for quite a lot but at the same time, she’s young, naive, and can’t be held responsible for the actions of others. But therein lies the fun dilemma - is she to blame? Maybe. You decide.
4. Lyon is a sheriff with a strictly black-and-white view on the law, as is shown by how she punishes the boy’s mother in Genesis. In a world where lawlessness is the norm, was her viewpoint beneficial in Elka’s society? How would you feel about her being a sheriff in our modern day world?
If Lyon was a sheriff in today’s world, she’d be arrested! I loved writing Lyon, she was so cold and scary but I knew she had a good reason. I don’t think she necessarily has a black and white view of the law, but instead a merciless one. After all, she does let Elka go and she has her reasons for her ruthless nature. I think Elka’s world needed an iron fist, a symbol of a more ordered society Elka could rail against. Lyon has a clear idea of right and wrong. She’s doing her job, going after the bad guy, she’s doing the right thing, and I think that makes her difficult to argue with.
5. Elka meets a wolf pup that grows up and follows her on her journey. Is there a reason you chose a wolf as Elka’s companion? Many people are obsessed with the direwolves from Game of Thrones. Why do you think wolves are such compelling companions?
Wolves have a wonderful mythology about them. They’re powerful, self-sufficient, and have complex pack societies. They’re evocative creatures, ancient almost, dangerous, deadly, but can be gentle. I think that’s part of the reason they’re so fun to write. In The Wolf Road, Wolf always shows up when Elka needs him. I always thought of him as her primitive instinct, her wild nature and it was fun to write them almost growing up together. Any animal companion is compelling to me. It’s a creature loyal to your character, who loves them in a simple way, unlike people. It’s also great fun to write the character of the animal without it being able to speak.
I took a solo trip to Canada when I was twenty. I travelled across the country and spent a week camping in the woods near Vancouver Island. Just being immersed in that landscape was a huge inspiration. I fell in love with the area and always wanted to set a book there. I’ve had some pretty fun encounters with wildlife - black bears, whales, great white sharks - and travelled a fair bit but I think those experiences gave me a degree of fearlessness and sense of adventure that I can see in Elka.
2. Elka’s yearning for a loving parental figure drives her throughout this story and is one of the few causes for emotional reactions out of her character. Why do you think this trope of the parentless child is so prevalent in fiction?
Being a parentless child allows a degree of freedom for the character, whether those parents are simply absent or long dead. As well as having a traumatic event, such as losing a parent, or a driving force - trying to find lost parents - it can be a great way to develop a character. But, as with anything, it has to be done for the right reasons and has to be integral to the plot. Having your character be an orphan just so they don’t have a bedtime and can party all night, is not good enough in my mind. Elka’s parentless situation is key to the plot of The Wolf Road. It’s her constant motivation, to find that kind of love and acceptance only a parent can give.
3. Elka feels that she is the reason for the death of many innocents. Do you think she’s right and should take the blame for bringing danger to them?
She’s partially right. I think Elka willfully didn’t see what was happening around her. She also didn’t turn in Kreagar when she discovered his guilt and instead ran away from the truth. He’s someone without conscience or moral code whereas Elka has quite a strong moral compass - she just chose to ignore it rather than face up to what Kreagar was and her part (if any) in his crimes. I think she is to blame for quite a lot but at the same time, she’s young, naive, and can’t be held responsible for the actions of others. But therein lies the fun dilemma - is she to blame? Maybe. You decide.
4. Lyon is a sheriff with a strictly black-and-white view on the law, as is shown by how she punishes the boy’s mother in Genesis. In a world where lawlessness is the norm, was her viewpoint beneficial in Elka’s society? How would you feel about her being a sheriff in our modern day world?
If Lyon was a sheriff in today’s world, she’d be arrested! I loved writing Lyon, she was so cold and scary but I knew she had a good reason. I don’t think she necessarily has a black and white view of the law, but instead a merciless one. After all, she does let Elka go and she has her reasons for her ruthless nature. I think Elka’s world needed an iron fist, a symbol of a more ordered society Elka could rail against. Lyon has a clear idea of right and wrong. She’s doing her job, going after the bad guy, she’s doing the right thing, and I think that makes her difficult to argue with.
5. Elka meets a wolf pup that grows up and follows her on her journey. Is there a reason you chose a wolf as Elka’s companion? Many people are obsessed with the direwolves from Game of Thrones. Why do you think wolves are such compelling companions?
Wolves have a wonderful mythology about them. They’re powerful, self-sufficient, and have complex pack societies. They’re evocative creatures, ancient almost, dangerous, deadly, but can be gentle. I think that’s part of the reason they’re so fun to write. In The Wolf Road, Wolf always shows up when Elka needs him. I always thought of him as her primitive instinct, her wild nature and it was fun to write them almost growing up together. Any animal companion is compelling to me. It’s a creature loyal to your character, who loves them in a simple way, unlike people. It’s also great fun to write the character of the animal without it being able to speak.
About the author:
Beth Lewis was raised in the wilds of Cornwall and split her childhood between books and the beach. She has traveled extensively throughout the world and has had close encounters with black bears, killer whales, and great white sharks. She has been, at turns, a bank cashier, a fire performer, and a juggler, and she is currently a managing editor at Titan Books in London. The Wolf Road is her first novel.
Beth’s website is: www.bethklewis.co.ukYou can follow her @bethklewis
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