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SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2017 MAN BOOKER PRIZE

‘A writer with a great future ahead of her…her prose isexquisite’ LOUISE DOUGHTY, author of APPLE TREE YARD

How far would you go to belong? Fourteen-year-old Lindalives with her parents in an ex-commune beside a lake in the beautiful, austerebackwoods of northern Minnesota. The other girls at school call Linda ‘Freak’,or ‘Commie’. Her parents mostly leave her to her own devices, whilst the otherinhabitants have grown up and moved on.

So when the perfect family – mother, father and their littleboy, Paul – move into the cabin across the lake, Linda insinuates her way intotheir orbit. She begins to babysit Paul and feels welcome, that she finally hasa place to belong.

Yet something isn’t right. Drawn into secrets she doesn’tunderstand, Linda must make a choice. But how can a girl with no real knowledgeof the world understand what the consequences will be?

‘One of the most intelligent and poetic novels of the year’New Statesman

Publisher Review

Every page in this first novel echoes with grief and loneliness, yet there's a great beauty to it. * COUNTRY LIFE * Life offers "Linda" two simultaneous chances to fit in, although both, as we know from the start, go terribly wrong * GUARDIAN * The chilling plot is only part of the mesmerising power of this assured and striking debut from this American novelist * PRESS ASSOCIATION * A writer with a great future ahead of her...her prose is exquisite -- Louise Doughty 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 As exquisite a first novel as I've ever encountered. Poetic, complex and utterly, heartbreakingly beautiful -- T. C. Boyle, author of The Harder They Come 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 -- Aimee Bender, author of The Color Master and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake Reminds me of Curtis Sittenfeld...so original, a beautiful literary work -- Viv Groskop The chilling plot is only part of the mesmerising power of this assured and striking debut from this American novelist * PRESS ASSOCIATION * Reminds me of Curtis Sittenfeld...so original, a beautiful literary work" (Viv Groskop); "A writer with a great future ahead of her...her prose is exquisite" (Louise Doughty) * BBC RADIO 4: SATURDAY REVIEW * Haunting and compelling * i NEWSPAPER * Fridlund is a fine writer and her work is cut through with moments of sparse beauty. * FINANCIAL TIMES * this is a top-notch thriller: suspicion drips like icicles in the thaw * THE TIMES * Fridlund's writing is vivid: her natural descriptions elicit a superb sense of place * DAILY MAIL * one of the most intelligent and poetic novels of the year * NEW STATESMAN * think Winter's Bone with less crime and more lyricism.. Fridlund is a fine writer and her work is cut through with moments of sparse beauty. * FINANCIAL TIMES * Compelling ... History of Wolves stands out. * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH * Beautifully written * LITERARY REVIEW *