Once There Were Wolves

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Once There Were Wolves
Once There Were Wolves.jpg
AuthorCharlotte McConaghy
LanguageEnglish
GenreLiterary novel
Publisher Hamish Hamilton
Publication date
3 August 2021
Publication placeAustralia
Media typePrint
Pages258 pp.
Awards2022 Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Fiction, winner; 2022 Davitt Award – Best Adult Novel, winner
ISBN 9781761043222

Once There Were Wolves is a 2021 novel by the Australian author Charlotte McConaghy. [1]

Contents

It was the winner of the 2022 Indie Book Awards Book of the Year – Fiction. [2]

Synopsis

Inti is the head of Cairngorms National Park's Wolf Project in Scotland. The project aims to release 14 wolves into the park as a part of their rewilding project. The project is met with opposition from local farmers who worry about their sheep flocks. Then a dead body is discovered and Inti begins to suspect a local policeman of the murder.

Critical reception

Writing in The Newtown Review of Books Ann Skea was impressed with the novel: "Charlotte McConaghy draws the reader into the lives of her characters, and realistically coveys the closeness, secrets, fears and mutual support of a small community where people have grown up together and know each other well...Ecology, climate change and self-sufficiency are casually woven in as underlying themes, but it is the creatures – human and wolf – that are the heart of the story." [3]

Notes

Publication history

After the novel's initial publication by Hamish Hamilton it was reprinted as follows:

The novel was also translated into Swedish, German, Finnish, Dutch and Danish in 2022, Greek in 2023, and French in 2024. [4]

Awards

See also

References

  1. "Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 September 2025.
  2. 1 2 ""Indie Book Awards - Winners 2022"". Australian Independent Booksellers. Retrieved 8 September 2025.
  3. ""CHARLOTTE McCONAGHY Once There Were Wolves. Reviewed by Ann Skea."". The Newtown Review of Books. Retrieved 8 September 2025.
  4. 1 2 3 "Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy". Austlit. Retrieved 8 September 2025.
  5. "Davitt Awards 2022 winners announced". Books+Publishing. 29 August 2022. Retrieved 8 September 2025.