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Tell The Wolves I'm Home: A Novel
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Tell The Wolves I'm Home: A Novel

Tell The Wolves I'm Home: A Novel

by Carol Rifka Brunt

Random House Publishing Group | June 19, 2012 | Hardcover

Based on 7 ratings | Rate this
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The Wall Street Journal • O: The Oprah Magazine • BookPage • Kirkus Reviews • Booklist • School Library Journal
 
NAMED A FAVORITE READ BY GILLIAN FLYNN
 
WINNER OF THE ALEX AWARD

In this striking literary debut, Carol Rifka Brunt unfolds a moving story of love, grief, and renewal as two lonely people become the unlikeliest of friends and find that sometimes you don't know you've lost someone until you've found them.
 
1987. There's only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus, and that's her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn's company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June's world is turned upside down. But Finn's death brings a surprise acquaintance into June's life-someone who will help her to heal, and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart.
 
At Finn's funeral, June notices a strange man lingering just beyond the crowd. A few days later, she receives a package in the mail. Inside is a beautiful teapot she recognizes from Finn's apartment, and a note from Toby, the stranger, asking for an opportunity to meet. As the two begin to spend time together, June realizes she's not the only one who misses Finn, and if she can bring herself to trust this unexpected friend, he just might be the one she needs the most.
 
An emotionally charged coming-of-age novel, Tell the Wolves I'm Home is a tender story of love lost and found, an unforgettable portrait of the way compassion can make us whole again.

Praise for Tell the Wolves I'm Home
 
"A dazzling debut novel."-O: The Oprah Magazine
 
"This compassionate and vital novel will rivet readers until the very end. . . . The narrative is as tender and raw as an exposed nerve, pulsing with the sharpest agonies and ecstasies of the human condition."-BookPage
 
"Tremendously moving."-The Wall Street Journal
 
"Transcendent . . . Peopled by characters who will live in readers' imaginations long after the final page is turned, Brunt's novel is a beautifully bittersweet mixture of heartbreak and hope."-Booklist (starred review)
 
"Carol Rifka Brunt establishes herself as an emerging author to watch."-Minneapolis Star Tribune
 
"Touching and ultimately hopeful."-People
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– More About This Product –

Tell The Wolves I'm Home: A Novel

Tell The Wolves I'm Home: A Novel

by Carol Rifka Brunt

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From the Publisher

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The Wall Street Journal • O: The Oprah Magazine • BookPage • Kirkus Reviews • Booklist • School Library Journal
 
NAMED A FAVORITE READ BY GILLIAN FLYNN
 
WINNER OF THE ALEX AWARD

In this striking literary debut, Carol Rifka Brunt unfolds a moving story of love, grief, and renewal as two lonely people become the unlikeliest of friends and find that sometimes you don't know you've lost someone until you've found them.
 
1987. There's only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus, and that's her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn's company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June's world is turned upside down. But Finn's death brings a surprise acquaintance into June's life-someone who will help her to heal, and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart.
 
At Finn's funeral, June notices a strange man lingering just beyond the crowd. A few days later, she receives a package in the mail. Inside is a beautiful teapot she recognizes from Finn's apartment, and a note from Toby, the stranger, asking for an opportunity to meet. As the two begin to spend time together, June realizes she's not the only one who misses Finn, and if she can bring herself to trust this unexpected friend, he just might be the one she needs the most.
 
An emotionally charged coming-of-age novel, Tell the Wolves I'm Home is a tender story of love lost and found, an unforgettable portrait of the way compassion can make us whole again.

Praise for Tell the Wolves I'm Home
 
"A dazzling debut novel."-O: The Oprah Magazine
 
"This compassionate and vital novel will rivet readers until the very end. . . . The narrative is as tender and raw as an exposed nerve, pulsing with the sharpest agonies and ecstasies of the human condition."-BookPage
 
"Tremendously moving."-The Wall Street Journal
 
"Transcendent . . . Peopled by characters who will live in readers' imaginations long after the final page is turned, Brunt's novel is a beautifully bittersweet mixture of heartbreak and hope."-Booklist (starred review)
 
"Carol Rifka Brunt establishes herself as an emerging author to watch."-Minneapolis Star Tribune
 
"Touching and ultimately hopeful."-People

About the Book

In this striking literary debut, Brunt unfolds a moving story of love, grief, and renewal in 1987 as two lonely people become the unlikeliest of friends and find that sometimes you don't know you've lost someone until you've found them.

Format: Hardcover

Dimensions: 368 Pages, 6.3 × 9.45 × 1.18 in

Published: June 19, 2012

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group

Language: English

The following ISBNs are associated with this title:

ISBN - 10: 0679644199

ISBN - 13: 9780679644194

Read from the Book

One My sister, Greta, and I were having our portrait painted by our uncle Finn that afternoon because he knew he was dying. This was after I understood that I wasn’t going to grow up and move into his apartment and live there with him for the rest of my life. After I stopped believing that the AIDS thing was all some kind of big mistake. When he first asked, my mother said no. She said there was something macabre about it. When she thought of the two of us sitting in Finn’s apartment with its huge windows and the scent of lavender and orange, when she thought of him looking at us like it might be the last time he would see us, she couldn’t bear it. And, she said, it was a long drive from northern Westchester all the way into Manhattan. She crossed her arms over her chest, looked right into Finn’s bird-­blue eyes, and told him it was just hard to find the time these days. “Tell me about it,” he said. That’s what broke her. I’m fifteen now, but I was still fourteen that afternoon. Greta was sixteen. It was 1986, late December, and we’d been going to Finn’s one Sunday afternoon a month for the last six months. It was always just my mother, Greta, and me. My father never came, and he was right not to. He wasn’t part of it. I sat in the back row of seats in the minivan. Greta sat in the row in front of me. I tried to arrange it like that so I could stare at her without her knowing it. Watching people is a good h
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From the Critics

Tell the Wolves I''m Home was named one of the Wall Street Journal ''s Top 10 Novels of 2012 , one of Oprah.com''s Best Books of 2012 , one of Kirkus Reviews '' top 100 books of the year , and one of Booklist ''s Top 10 First Novels of 2012 as well as a 2012 O Magazine Favorite Read .  It is also a Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist for Fiction and a Shelf Awareness Reviewer''s Choice pick for 2012. “A dazzling debut novel.” – O Magazine “Tremendously moving…Brunt strikes a difficult balance, imbuing June with the disarming candor of a child and the melancholy wisdom of a heart-scarred adult." — The Wall Street Journal “In this lovely debut novel set in the 1980s, Carol Rifka Brunt takes us under the skin and inside the tumultuous heart of June Elbus…Distracted parents, tussling adolescents, the awful ghost-world of the AIDS-afflicted before AZT—all of it springs to life in Brunt’s touching and ultimately hopeful book.” -- People “[A] transcendent debut… Peopled by characters who will live in readers’ imaginations long after the final page is turned, Brunt’s novel is a beautifully bittersweet mix of heartbreak and hope.” — Booklist (starred review) “Carol Rifka Brunt’s astonishing first novel is so good, there’s no need to grade on a curve: Tell the Wolves I''m Home is not only one of the best debuts of 2012, it’s one of the best books of the yea
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About the Author

Carol Rifka Brunt's work has appeared in several literary journals, including North American Review and The Sun. In 2006, she was one of three fiction writers who received the New Writing Ventures award and, in 2007, she received a generous Arts Council grant to write Tell the Wolves I'm Home, her first novel. Originally from New York, she currently lives in England with her husband and three children.
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