The White Wolf: Novel and Origins - Guest Post by E.M. Westbrook

The White Wolf: 

The Novel – Origins:  

My new wilderness adventure novel features a young wolf. This interest is in some ways not new since before I could even walk I’ve loved canines. I still have a photo with our family’s first dog, Jocko, a rag tag bundle of fun border collie. In those days we lived in the country and our parents knew that when my sister, cousin and me played outdoors we’d always be safe with Jocko by our side.  After I learned to read I was especially fond of animal novels – stories by Albert Payson Terhune about Lad of Sunnybrook Farm, Jack London’s White Fang, Farley Mowat’s Never Cry Wolf.  Then, by a stroke of great good fortune, internationally celebrated wildlife artist, Robert Bateman was my high school home room teacher. One Thanksgiving he took some of his students with a special interest in nature up to Algonquin Park. Visiting the Algonquin wolf research unit was the highlight of the weekend. Imagine how thrilled we were to be allowed into one of the pens with a litter of wolf pups! For me, that experience ushered in a life-long love not just for domestic pets but for all wild animals. 

There is another way the past has influenced my new book. My parents divorced when I was thirteen years old. And as if losing my father was not enough, we also had to move away from a home I treasured. Now I realize that one of the major themes in this novel – the yearning for home – has echoed those early feelings. Niko, is a rare white eastern wolf snatched from his den by a hunter when he was barely a week old. He’s raised by Jade, a young woman. When the pup reaches four months of age, the hunter returns, promising he’ll take Niko to a sanctuary, instead, he sells Niko to a hunting preserve and Jade risks everything to rescue the wolf as trophy hunters track Niko through the shimmering beauty of the Adirondack mountains. The deep attachment we all feel to home entwines the fates of three principal individuals:  Jade, grieving the loss of her family farm, Conrad Lang, a hunting guide who could lose his ranch as it teeters on the edge of bankruptcy, and Niko raised in captivity, who finds the early trust he placed in humans threatens to become a curse. The young wolf too, longs for home - his birthplace high up on Mount Seymour. But to survive, he must learn how to be wild again. The White Wolf story is a testimony to the passion and courage of all three.

“Much of the novel is from the wolf’s point of view, but he is not anthropomorphized in any way, and Westbrook has done a sterling job of representing him as he grows, determined to set his own fate. The human characters he encounters are fully realized, both the good and the bad, those wanting to help the wolf, those wanting to make money off him, and those fixated on hunting him. A thriller like no other, with a deep heart, compelling message, brilliant writing, and a deep seated love of nature in all its complications.”
--Vicki Delany, National Bestselling Mystery Author

The Story Behind the Story: 

Another strong influence came through my research: In the late 19^th century, after winning a novel competition held by the American Humane Society, Margaret Marshall Saunders changed the world with her novel Beautiful Joe, a book that by the late 1930’s had sold more than seven million copies - an unheard of number for those times. Her novel helped shift public attitudes toward animal harm. Inspired by this legacy, The White Wolf continues the tradition of storytelling that sparks awareness and change by confronting a modern threat – trophy hunting. Eleven years after the shooting of Cecil the Lion, public concern over that issue has only grown. 

***

E.M. Westbrook is the pen name of Dorothy McIntosh, author of four thrillers published by Penguin Random House. Her debut, The Witch of Babylon, was named one of Amazon’s ‘best mysteries and thrillers of the year.’ CNN recognized it among “six enduring historical thrillers” alongside works by Agatha Christie, Umberto Ecco, Dan Brown, Wilbur Smith and Kate Mosse. The White Wolf brings her trademark suspense to the untamed wilderness.