A History Of Wolves by Emily Fridlund

 

Maddie lives on the lake in the forest in an abandoned commune with her mother and father.  Maddie sometimes wonders if they are actually her parents or just the adults willing to take her when the commune broke up and she was a toddler.  Now fifteen, her living situation makes her an outsider at her school and she doesn't have friends.  She is interested when a new family moves in across the lake but close enough to view.

There is a mother and small boy, the father away working.  The mother, Patra, seems lonely.  Paul is four and Linda, which is how Maddie introduces herself, becomes his babysitter and Patra's friend.  She teaches Paul the things she knows about nature.  The father is an astrologer and away on work.  When he returns, the atmosphere at the house changes as he is definitely in control and manages every interaction.

Things are also difficult for a teenager to process at school.  There is a girl who becomes pregnant in the tenth grade after having made accusations of improper contact with a teacher.  She later recants her accusation but the teacher is sent away to prison after questionable items are found in a search.  Maddie/Linda had a relationship with him when he picked her to give her presentation about wolves at a conference.  She wonders if he was truly guilty as he never was inappropriate with her, or if he just didn't find her attractive.

As Maddie looks back on this summer as an adult, the crisis of the time was when Paul became sick.  Leo, the father, is a strict Christian Scientist and this affects how Paul is handled during his illness.  Maddie doesn't understand what is happening as with so many things she witnessed or experienced but now looking back, she wonders if she could have affected the situation.

This is a debut novel.  The author grew up and still resides in Minnesota where the book is set.  Maddie is an interesting character, just figuring out how to relate to others and the world and then stuck in many ways for years afterwards in that summer.  There are questions about the Christian Scientist religion, about controlling individuals, about marriages that are barren and based on one person having all the power.  Readers will feel the tension under the everyday life of Maddie and know that something must have happened that summer that impacted the rest of Maddie's life.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.