Regular marked price: $25.00Discount Price: $16.50
Cost Savings: $8.50 (34%)Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
EAN num: 9781416540748
ISBN number: 1416540741
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 384
Printing Date: July 10, 2007
Publishing house: Simon & Schuster
Sale Popularity Level: 128117
Studio: Simon & Schuster
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
A brilliant and breathtaking debut that captivated readers and garnered critical acclaim in the United Kingdom, The Tenderness of Wolves was long-listed for the Orange Prize in fiction and won the Costa Award (formerly the Whitbread) Book of the Year.
The year is 1867. Winter has just tightened its grip on Dove River, a tiny isolated settlement in the Northern Territory, when a man is brutally murdered. Laurent Jammett had been a voyageur for the Hudson Bay Company before an accident lamed him four years earlier. The same accident afforded him the little parcel of land in Dove River, land that the locals called unlucky due to the untimely death of the previous owner.
A local woman, Mrs. Ross, stumbles upon the crime scene and sees the tracks leading from the dead man's cabin north toward the forest and the tundra beyond. It is Mrs. Ross's knock on the door of the largest house in Caulfield that launches the investigation. Within hours she will regret that knock with a mother's love -- for soon she makes another discovery: her seventeen-year-old son Francis has disappeared and is now considered a prime suspect.
In the wake of such violence, people are drawn to the crime and to the township -- Andrew Knox, Dove River's elder statesman; Thomas Sturrock, a wily American itinerant trader; Donald Moody, the clumsy young Company representative; William Parker, a half-breed Native American and trapper who was briefly detained for Jammett's murder before becoming Mrs. Ross's guide. But the question remains: do these men want to solve the crime or exploit it?
One by one, the searchers set out from Dove River following the tracks across a desolate landscape -- home to only wild animals, madmen, and fugitives -- variously seeking a murderer, a son, two sisters missing for seventeen years, and a forgotten Native American culture before the snows settle and cover the tracks of the past for good.
In an astonishingly assured debut, Stef Penney deftly weaves adventure, suspense, revelation, and humour into an exhilarating thriller; a panoramic historical romance; a gripping murder mystery; and, ultimately, with the sheer scope and quality of her storytelling, an epic for the ages.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
One of the most interesting stylistic books I've read. It's a 1st person narrative--sometimes, sort of .... There are prose passages that are so stunning they take my breath away. These are ususally tender emotive reflections. The story is a bit confuluted, but hey, it takes place in the Canadian wild in the 1860's--enough to drive any one into confusion. And so it does. All the great plots are here: Jealousy; Murder; Greed; Abandonment; Unrequited Love; Madness; Failure; Addiction; Suicide; Wilderness Survival; and Tenderness.
Rated by buyers -
The frost in Dove River has preserved the body of Laurent Jammett, so it looks nearly just as a few minutes after he was murdered, when Mrs. Ross, a neighbor, finds Laurent in his cabin. The investigation by the magistrate, Andrew Knox, and by the men summoned from The Company, with young idealist Donald Moody at the helm, ensues, leading to unexpected discoveries.
The year is 1867, and the action takes place in the Northern Territories of Canada, when the settlers make their very first steps at taming the vast stretches of the forest, fighting with the snow, overwhelming cold, and wild animals. The adventures wait for those who decide to move into the wilderness - and people live there for many reasons.
The construction of "The Thenderness of Wolves" allowed the author to speak using different voices, which include Mrs. Ross, a Scottish woman of mysterious past, who feels like a misfit everywhere; Francis Ross, her adopted son, who holds the key to the murder mystery; Donald Moody, a man desperate to do things right, waiting for the love of his life; Maria Knox, the older, sharp-witted and intelligent daughter of the magistrate; The magistrate Andrew Knox himself; and maybe the most intriguing persona, Thomas Sturrock, who is searching for the proof of the native written language. Very short chapters, changing between the voices, organized into four volumes, keep the reader from boredom (in fact, they keep the reader glued to the book, especially that nearly every chapter reveals something crucial to the story or provides an unexpected twist).
The novel is written with passion, the rendering of the cold climate and crude surroundings, as well as the great characters, who are real people, with strengths and weaknesses, with yearnings and painful past, make it an engrossing, hard to put down book. The places like Himmelvanger, a Norwegian Lutheran community, hidden deep in the woods, different remote and forgotten trading posts, and finally, Dove River and the Caulfield community are depicted with great detail, so that I could see them vividly in my imagination. I liked very much the native people, Jacob, Donald's friend, and scary William Parker, Elizabeth Bird and the inhabitants of Hanover post (except Stewart and Nesbit, the Company officials). All of them seem to carry a secret...The Himmelvanger community was also very picturesque and not quite as it might seem...
The mystery of Jammett's murder is only one of many in this novel: the disappearance of teenage Amy and Eve Seton, the bone plaque and Francis's secret are a few others. Not all the threads are finished; the main question is solved, but some of the smaller, but equally interesting themes are abandoned or abruptly cut, like the author did not have an idea how to weave them into the story so that everything ends smoothly within the volume she planned.
However, "The Tenderness of Wolves" is a most interesting debut novel, which earned the Costa Award. I will wait for Stef Penney's new novel or any news of it, because I am very curious what this promising novelist can come up with next.
Rated by buyers -
I did not want this book to end and it stayed with me for quite some time.
Rated by buyers 
-
I got caught up in this book pretty quickly (and I listened to an unabridged version of it). And was fascinated by the stories of the different characters, but I felt... just dropped, when the end came. There were too many things that weren't resolved. Like were Francis, Angus and Mrs. Ross reconciled? Did McKinley accept that Parker wasn't the murderer? About about Lena and her affair with the carpenter? And maybe there was no answer to what happened to Amy, but what happened with the 3rd girl that finally wandered back from the woods while the other two stayed missing? Did they have a argument?
I just... was missing too many things when the book ended, despite enjoying the plot and backdrop of early Canada and the "Company" that seemed to rule everything.
Rated by buyers -
The power, simplicity, beauty, and exquisitely hypnotizing imagery of this book makes me want to cry as I finally, reluctantly lay the finished book down. I've hated for it to end, and have read the last chapter very slowly, thinking it will have to be quite an extraordinary book to capture me as this one has. This wonderful multi-layered story (and each new layer is as compelling as the last) is set in 1860's Canada just below the Hudson Bay. A trapper has been murdered in the tiny settlement, and we are taken on an exciting unpredictable journey searching for the killer. The environment is brutally harsh, yet we feel the beauty and lure of the country as well; each fascinating character brought to life vividly and unforgettably; I feel as though I've been in their presence..I can feel and touch and smell each one...can look into their eyes, feel their breath, the beauty and the evilness. Oh! What an experience! The same lady that recommended this book, via a blog regarding "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" recommended "Out Stealing Horses". I'm hopeful, and will get back to you on that one. I wish I knew how to contact this person and get more of her recommendations!
Find other books like this one:
