Wolfish The stories we tell about fear, ferocity and freedom
- 8 Feb 2024
- 9781838854638
- £10.99
- 432 pp
- 129×198mm
- 2 Mar 2023
- 9781838854614
- £8.79
- 432 pp
- 2 Mar 2023
- 9781838854621
- £25
- 15 hrs 36 min
In a few words
An original and probing debut work of non-fiction by a brilliant new writer, rooted in her years-long quest to study the cultural legacy of the wolf
In a few words
An original and probing debut work of non-fiction by a brilliant new writer, rooted in her years-long quest to study the cultural legacy of the wolf
In a few words
An original and probing debut work of nonfiction by a brilliant new writer, rooted in her years-long quest to study the cultural legacy of the wolf
Berry draws on a huge, rich depository of lupine literature. Wolfish is more than just an interesting exercise in cultural anthropology, though. The book’s most obvious ancestor is Helen Macdonald’s megahit of 2014, H Is for Hawk; it has that same intellectual range and a prose style that pushes [. . .] towards the poetic
A singular book. Reading this will invite you to examine your own walk through the world — hungry, afraid, brave
Katherine May
Berry draws on a huge, rich depository of lupine literature. Wolfish is more than just an interesting exercise in cultural anthropology, though. The book’s most obvious ancestor is Helen Macdonald’s megahit of 2014, H Is for Hawk; it has that same intellectual range and a prose style that pushes [. . .] towards the poetic
A singular book. Reading this will invite you to examine your own walk through the world — hungry, afraid, brave
Katherine May
Berry draws on a huge, rich depository of lupine literature. Wolfish is more than just an interesting exercise in cultural anthropology, though. The book’s most obvious ancestor is Helen Macdonald’s megahit of 2014, H Is for Hawk; it has that same intellectual range and a prose style that pushes [. . .] towards the poetic
A singular book. Reading this will invite you to examine your own walk through the world — hungry, afraid, brave
Katherine May
More about
the book
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2023 FOR FINANCIAL TIMES, TIME, VULTURE, LIT HUB, GOODREADS, RUMPUS, BUSTLE, READER’S DIGEST and more
Both vilified and venerated, wolves abound through cultural folklore and literature. In this hauntingly lyrical and unflinching inquiry, Erica Berry untangles these depictions – alongside her own research of the wolf and experience as a woman – to try to understand how we navigate terror, vulnerability and violence in our fragile, often dangerous world.
Luminously wise and unusually brave, Wolfish will stay with you long into the night.
More about
the book
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2023 FOR FINANCIAL TIMES, TIME, VULTURE, LIT HUB, GOODREADS, RUMPUS, BUSTLE, READER’S DIGEST and more
Both vilified and venerated, wolves abound through cultural folklore and literature. In this hauntingly lyrical and unflinching inquiry, Erica Berry untangles these depictions – alongside her own research of the wolf and experience as a woman – to try to understand how we navigate terror, vulnerability and violence in our fragile, often dangerous world.
Luminously wise and unusually brave, Wolfish will stay with you long into the night.
More about
the book
A FINANCIAL TIMES NON-FICTION BOOK TO READ IN 2023
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2023 for VULTURE, LIT HUB, GOODREADS, RUMPUS, BUSTLE, READER’S DIGEST and more
Wolves abound through cultural folklore and through literature – vilified and venerated in equal measure. In Wolfish, Erica Berry examines these depictions, alongside her own research of the wolf for nearly a decade, to get to the heart of what our stories about the wolf reveal about our relationships with one another and ourselves: ‘What does it mean to want to embody the same creature from which you are supposed to be running?’
The wolf is so often depicted as the male predator, preying on the vulnerable girl/woman who strays from the path; the she-wolf meanwhile depicts women who sit outside the accepted boundaries of feminine behaviour. Berry openly recounts her own uncomfortable and sometimes frightening experiences as a woman to try to understand how we navigate our fears when threat can seem constant.
Through it all, Berry finds new expressions for courage and survival: how to be a brave human and animal member of our fragile, often dangerous world.
Startling in its scope, covering everything from fairy tales to domestic violence. This book should be required reading
Ranging far and wide culturally in the company of wolves . . . Berry segues effortlessly from the reintroduction of wolves at Yellowstone national park to Pliny the Elder’s belief that wolves held pharmacological benefits for women’s bodies
Singular . . . a book entirely its own
Explores the contours of human relationships — and what it means to be a woman — through this most familiar yet mysterious of creatures
Startling in its scope, covering everything from fairy tales to domestic violence. This book should be required reading
Ranging far and wide culturally in the company of wolves . . . Berry segues effortlessly from the reintroduction of wolves at Yellowstone national park to Pliny the Elder’s belief that wolves held pharmacological benefits for women’s bodies
Singular . . . a book entirely its own
Explores the contours of human relationships — and what it means to be a woman — through this most familiar yet mysterious of creatures
Startling in its scope, covering everything from fairy tales to domestic violence. This book should be required reading
Ranging far and wide culturally in the company of wolves . . . Berry segues effortlessly from the reintroduction of wolves at Yellowstone national park to Pliny the Elder’s belief that wolves held pharmacological benefits for women’s bodies
Singular . . . a book entirely its own
Explores the contours of human relationships — and what it means to be a woman — through this most familiar yet mysterious of creatures
Erica Berry
View profileErica Berry is a writer based in her hometown of Portland, Oregon. She has an MFA from the University of Minnesota, where she was a College of Liberal Arts Fellow. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian, New York Times, Yale Review, Orion, Atlantic, Outside Magazine and elsewhere. Winner of the Steinberg Essay Prize and the Kurt Brown Prize in non-fiction, she is an Oregon Book Award Finalist for creative non-fiction and has received fellowships and funding from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the Wurlitzer Foundation, the Ucross Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources. She is currently an Associate Fellow at the Attic Institute for Arts and Letters and a writing instructor with Literary Arts in Portland.
@ericajberry | ericaberry.com
Erica Berry
View profileErica Berry is a writer based in her hometown of Portland, Oregon. She has an MFA from the University of Minnesota, where she was a College of Liberal Arts Fellow. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian, New York Times, Yale Review, Orion, Atlantic, Outside Magazine and elsewhere. Winner of the Steinberg Essay Prize and the Kurt Brown Prize in non-fiction, she is an Oregon Book Award Finalist for creative non-fiction and has received fellowships and funding from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the Wurlitzer Foundation, the Ucross Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources. She is currently an Associate Fellow at the Attic Institute for Arts and Letters and a writing instructor with Literary Arts in Portland.
@ericajberry | ericaberry.com
Erica Berry
View profileErica Berry is a writer based in her hometown of Portland, Oregon. She has an MFA from the University of Minnesota, where she was a College of Liberal Arts Fellow. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian, New York Times, Yale Review, Orion, Atlantic, Outside Magazine and elsewhere. Winner of the Steinberg Essay Prize and the Kurt Brown Prize in non-fiction, she is an Oregon Book Award Finalist for creative non-fiction and has received fellowships and funding from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the Wurlitzer Foundation, the Ucross Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources. She is currently an Associate Fellow at the Attic Institute for Arts and Letters and a writing instructor with Literary Arts in Portland.
@ericajberry | ericaberry.com
