Reviews
Praise for HISTORY OF WOLVES: "So delicately calibrated and precisely beautiful that one might not immediately sense the sledgehammer of pain building inside this book. And I mean that in the best way. What powerful tension and depth this provides! I'm so excited for readers to encounter the talent and roiling intelligence of Emily Fridlund."--Aimee Bender "Winter collapsed on us that year. It knelt down, exhausted, and stayed." So much is accomplished here, not least a kind of trust that this writer will make everything count, including the kind of data that is usually left for dead in a story. What is literary authority, after all, but the ability to regularly, without apparent effort, make the most of every sentence, build feeling in every line and do it in such a way that is tough, tight, funny, and often brilliantly disruptive?"--Ben Marcus "As exquisite a first novel as I've ever encountered. Poetic, complex and utterly, heartbreakingly beautiful."--T.C. Boyle "First thing you see is the bracing intelligence of the book's young narrator - no big-eyed sentiments for Linda, raised amid blighted ideals in the ceaseless winters and vast swamps of northern Minnesota. So observant is Linda that you trust her instantly, but it's her own search for trust, for connection even at enormous cost, that will hold you to the final hour. Emily Fridlund's language is generous and precise, her story grief-tempered and forcefully moving. History of Wolves is the loneliest thing I've read in years, and it's gorgeous. These are haunted pages."--Leif Enger Bookseller Praise for HISTORY OF WOLVES: "So compelling, so filled with tension that I could not stop reading. A first novel this good gives me such incredible faith in the literary world that this young talent will bring us readers more and more of this exquisite prose and choice of words. She gets this close with sexual tension and then moves away in a way that allows you to let your breath out. And Paul, the innocent in this whole mess, is a victim but are the others as well? I love this so much!"-- Annie Philbrick, Bank Square Books "A punch to the heart lies at the center of History of Wolves--a punch readers may not see coming until some critical point when they look up from the page and realize what Fridlund has been doing to them all along: setting them up to knock them down. Hard. In this tremendous debut, she writes with unbelievable craft and depth of feeling about girlhood, sexual awakening, guilt, belief, and above all the shattering limits of faith. The result is a novel of huge power, one destined to be among the most talked-about of the season."-- Brandon Stout, Changing Hands Bookstore, Praise for HISTORY OF WOLVES: "So delicately calibrated and precisely beautiful that one might not immediately sense the sledgehammer of pain building inside this book. And I mean that in the best way. What powerful tension and depth this provides! I'm so excited for readers to encounter the talent and roiling intelligence of Emily Fridlund."--Aimee Bender "Winter collapsed on us that year. It knelt down, exhausted, and stayed." So much is accomplished here, not least a kind of trust that this writer will make everything count, including the kind of data that is usually left for dead in a story. What is literary authority, after all, but the ability to regularly, without apparent effort, make the most of every sentence, build feeling in every line and do it in such a way that is tough, tight, funny, and often brilliantly disruptive?"--Ben Marcus "As exquisite a first novel as I've ever encountered. Poetic, complex and utterly, heartbreakingly beautiful."--T.C. Boyle Bookseller Praise for HISTORY OF WOLVES: "So compelling, so filled with tension that I could not stop reading. A first novel this good gives me such incredible faith in the literary world that this young talent will bring us readers more and more of this exquisite prose and choice of words. She gets this close with sexual tension and then moves away in a way that allows you to let your breath out. And Paul, the innocent in this whole mess, is a victim but are the others as well? I love this so much!"-- Annie Philbrick, Bank Square Books "A punch to the heart lies at the center of History of Wolves--a punch readers may not see coming until some critical point when they look up from the page and realize what Fridlund has been doing to them all along: setting them up to knock them down. Hard. In this tremendous debut, she writes with unbelievable craft and depth of feeling about girlhood, sexual awakening, guilt, belief, and above all the shattering limits of faith. The result is a novel of huge power, one destined to be among the most talked-about of the season."-- Brandon Stout, Changing Hands Bookstore, Praise for HISTORY OF WOLVES: "[A] stellar debut . . . A sense of foreboding subtly permeates the story . . . [the] wordsmithing is fantastic, rife with vivid turns of phrase. Fridlund has elegantly crafted a striking protagonist whose dark leanings cap off the tragedy at the heart of this book, which is moving and disturbing, and which will stay with the reader."-- Publishers Weekly (starred boxed review) "An atmospheric, near-gothic coming-of-age novel turns on the dance between predator and prey . . . Fridlund is an assured writer . . . The novel has a tinge of fairy tale, wavering on the blur between good and evil, thought and action. But the sharp consequences for its characters make it singe and sing--a literary tour de force."-- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "The writing is beautiful . . . a triumph of tone and attitude. Lovers of character-driven literary fiction will embrace this."-- Booklist (starred review) "So delicately calibrated and precisely beautiful that one might not immediately sense the sledgehammer of pain building inside this book. And I mean that in the best way. What powerful tension and depth this provides! I'm so excited for readers to encounter the talent and roiling intelligence of Emily Fridlund."-- Aimee Bender "'Winter collapsed on us that year. It knelt down, exhausted, and stayed.' So much is accomplished here, not least a kind of trust that this writer will make everything count, including the kind of data that is usually left for dead in a story. What is literary authority, after all, but the ability to regularly, without apparent effort, make the most of every sentence, build feeling in every line and do it in such a way that is tough, tight, funny, and often brilliantly disruptive?"-- Ben Marcus "As exquisite a first novel as I've ever encountered. Poetic, complex and utterly, heartbreakingly beautiful."-- T.C. Boyle "First thing you see is the bracing intelligence of the book's young narrator - no big-eyed sentiments for Linda, raised amid blighted ideals in the ceaseless winters and vast swamps of northern Minnesota. So observant is Linda that you trust her instantly, but it's her own search for trust, for connection even at enormous cost, that will hold you to the final hour. Emily Fridlund's language is generous and precise, her story grief-tempered and forcefully moving. History of Wolves is the loneliest thing I've read in years, and it's gorgeous. These are haunted pages."-- Leif Enger Bookseller Praise for HISTORY OF WOLVES: "So compelling, so filled with tension that I could not stop reading. A first novel this good gives me such incredible faith in the literary world that this young talent will bring us readers more and more of this exquisite prose and choice of words. She gets this close with sexual tension and then moves away in a way that allows you to let your breath out. And Paul, the innocent in this whole mess, is a victim but are the others as well? I love this so much!"-- Annie Philbrick, Bank Square Books "A punch to the heart lies at the center of History of Wolves --a punch readers may not see coming until some critical point when they look up from the page and realize what Fridlund has been doing to them all along: setting them up to knock them down. Hard. In this tremendous debut, she writes with unbelievable craft and depth of feeling about girlhood, sexual awakening, guilt, belief, and above all the shattering limits of faith. The result is a novel of huge power, one destined to be among the most talked-about of the season."-- Brandon Stout, Changing Hands Bookstore
