Once there were wolves ~ Charlotte McConaghy (46 of 2024)

 

Inspired by the Yellowstone Wolf Reintroduction project, this is the story of Inti Flynn who is on a similar project in Scotland. Brilliant plot combining climate crisis, psychological issues and a murder mystery. 261 pages, but lot of information, going to and fro, past and present. 

Inti Flynn has come to the Scottish Highlands to lead a team of biologists on a mission. They are releasing a pack of fourteen gray wolves in an attempt to restore the ecological balance that has been badly upset by lumbering and killing of the wolves. The local rural community is up against the project as they fear for the lives of their sheep and themselves too, for wolves are a much maligned and feared of animals.

Inti and her twin sister Aggie grew up splitting their time between their father, who was a lumberjack turned naturalist in Alaska and their police officer mother in Australia who deals with crimes against women day in an out. The intense connect that Inti and Aggie has with nature is directly related to their childhood that was spent with their father.

“The forest has a beating heart we can’t see,” Dad told us once. He lay flat on the earth and we copied him, placing our hands on the warm ground and our ears to the underbrush, listening, “It’s here, beneath us. This is how the trees speak with and care for each other. Their roots tangle together, dozens of trees with dozens more in a web that reaches on forever, and they whisper to each other though their roots. They warn of danger and they share sustenance. They’re like us, a family. Stronger together. Nothing gets through this life alone.” He smiled then, and asked, “Can you hear the beating?” and we could, somehow we could.”

This para touched my heart, took me back to my childhood.

All the characters have shades of grey, and there are specific and plausible reasons for what they have done, have gone through. Aggie is catatonic, Duncan, the local police chief is obviously hiding some past trauma, Lainey, the local sheep farmer Stuart’s wife is being abused by her husband regularly but everyone seems to turn a blind eye towards it. The mysteries are solved one by one as the wolves are slowly reintroduced and start acclimatizing themselves to the wilderness. Inti and her team walks on a tightrope, for they know one misstep and the wolves would all be killed. Things come to a head when Stuart disappears. Foul play is suspected, Inti knows what happened, but she cannot disclose it to anyone. It is when Duncan is attacked in a similar manner that even Inti figures out what exactly was happening.

Inti is afflicted with “mirror touch synesthesia,” a rare condition that causes the individuals to feel the same sensations that another person feels. Whether it is the wolves, Aggie or Duncan, the effect on Inti is devastating.

Like the trees, we cannot remain isolated. our redemption is in our connections, in understanding and supporting each other, and turning to each other to find solace, peace and redemption.

Aggie had to go through a lot from her surgeon husband,  there was no end to the pain, suffering and how much the sisters wanted to protect each other and be with each other. 

Then There was a mother, who realise there is more kindness in this world but we tend to focus on the bad. Children who fail to understand the signs. A childbirth in the forest and a horse helping through.  A daughter following the footsteps of her father and Gone Home  👣 Forest.

Wolves might very well be one of the most misunderstood species of animals. They are considered wild, yet they are so close to us, humans. We too were wild once. And we still are, just that we have learned to camouflage it well. McConaghy makes us live with the wolves, feel their thoughts and emotions. 

https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/wolf-restoration.htm?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0DUpQ5RuJoor4fwykcIwl0ibw-0UwurdCTLeol3U6guFrX2XqzRF64kJo_aem_ATwu4wA3OxSrUmcrYhA9P3_cUYBp1-PpVKP6izJBjpTgJulJbr5h0GIU-5YUTA5QrLFrxy7t0_A8BzfXLpsUyvqS

 Long before they killed the wolves, they massacred over 300 native americans and displaced several thousand to establish the yellowstone NP in 1872.