Guest review by Cindy Jefferies: THE WOLF BORDER by Sarah Hall

 

"She’s the real deal, and I really shouldn’t be admitting to not knowing her work until now!"

First published in 2001 for children, Cindy Jefferies found success with her Fame School series with Usborne Books, obtaining 22 foreign rights deals. Latterly writing fiction for adults as Cynthia Jefferies, her first title The Outrageous Fortune of Abel Morgan was published in 2018, followed a year later by The Honourable Life of Thomas Chayne, set during the English Civil Wars, followed in 2019. Both titles are now available in paperback.

I came to read Sarah Hall by way of a friend who recommended her. Hall is a multi award winner, including being shortlisted for the Man Booker twice so far. Surely she’ll win it one day. Why on earth hadn’t I come across her before? But I hadn’t, now I have and am eternally grateful to Claire, who put me right.

I like to support my local library, which is only a few yards away from my house. I love the randomness of what’s in and what’s out. The only Sarah Hall when I looked online was The Wolf Border, published in 2015, so that’s what I picked up. But I have lots more treats in store. She has now written six novels, and several collections of short stories. Apparently she started her writing career by publishing poetry in literary magazines. Of course she did. She’s the real deal, and I really shouldn’t be admitting to not knowing her work until now!

So to The Wolf Border. I love reading about wolves, and I do enjoy a good plot. When you add in wonderful descriptions of landscape, well researched human and wolf biology and superlative phrases I had to read again, either for the pure poetry, or for the wisdom within them … well! Finding everything in one novel is rare. They don’t come along every day. Unputdownable can also mean so plot-driven that you’re left gasping but ultimately unfulfilled. Literary can mean difficult. Not here.

Rachel is an expert on wolves. She lives on a reservation in Idaho, protecting the wolves in her care. She has a good team. She has a few friends, and brief affairs with men. Her upbringing in Cumbria was unusual, her mother not easy to love, or even to like. She has very little contact with mother or brother. Perhaps she is something of a lone wolf, but that’s too easy. Life isn’t that simple, and Hall writes real, complex characters, easy to believe in.

When Rachel goes back to Cumbria after several years away it is to visit her mother, who is dying, and to meet a landowner who has a plan to introduce wolves back into the UK. He has a vast estate, friends in high places, and the money to invest in the project. Rachel doesn’t think much of Thomas the earl, but the idea is intriguing, and the land reasonably suitable. The space the pair would have while in quarantine is generous, and eventual release into a huge area, though not as good as being totally wild, is close to the next best thing. There are too many deer on the estate and it is clear that the wolves would be self-sustaining and would improve the environment in several ways.

Hall doesn’t shy away from the complexities of making such a project happen. There would be opposition and encouragement both locally and more widely. The high salary Rachel is offered isn’t the thing that sways her. It’s the possibility of making it work. Yes, they would still be captive, but the amount of land they would have would enable them to live their own lives, naturally. Hunting their own food, and maybe, one day raising their own young. She takes the job, but has unwittingly brought something with her from Idaho which will have a profound effect on her life in England.

Thank you, Sarah Hall, for a thoroughly enjoyable and thought provoking novel. My next trip will be to the bookshop for your latest!

The Wolf Border is published by Faber.

Here is a Q&A with Cynthia (Cindy) Jefferies on her novel set during the Civil War, The Honourable Life of Thomas Chayne.