This book can be found in:
Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Crime & mystery > Historical mysteries

The Tenderness of Wolves (Paperback)

Stef Penney

6 Reviews Write your review

£7.99

Paperback Published: 08/02/2007

In stock

We can send it to you within 24 hours

Click & Collect From your local shop

Synopsis Author

1867, Canada: as winter tightens its grip on the isolated settlement of Dove River, a man is brutally murdered and a 17-year old boy disappears. Tracks leaving the dead man's cabin head north towards the forest and the tundra beyond. In the wake of such violence, people are drawn to the township - journalists, Hudson's Bay Company men, trappers, traders - but do they want to solve the crime or exploit it? One-by-one the assembled searchers set out from Dove River, pursuing the tracks across a desolate landscape home only to wild animals, madmen and fugitives, variously seeking a murderer, a son, two sisters missing for 17 years, a Native American culture, and a fortune in stolen furs before the snows settle and cover the tracks of the past for good. In an astonishingly assured debut, Stef Penney deftly waves adventure, suspense, revelation and humour into a panoramic historical romance, an exhilarating thriller, a keen murder mystery and ultimately, with the sheer scope and quality of her storytelling, one of the books of the year.

Publisher: Quercus Publishing Plc
ISBN: 9781847240675

Stef Penney

Born in Edinburgh, Penney turned to film-making after a degree in Philosophy and Theology from Bristol University and a variety of jobs in this country and abroad. She made three short films before studying Film and TV in Bournemouth, and on graduation was selected for the Carlton Television New Writers Scheme. She has also written and directed two short films, and BBC 10 x 10 starring Anna Friel and a Film Council Digital Short in 2002 starring Lucy Russell.

Penney has suffered from agoraphobia for 15 years and it took her more than two years to get on a London bus to travel to the British Library to research the background for The Tenderness of Wolves, which started life as a screenplay. The freelance screenwriter is now over her condition - she now flies, for example - and said that if she had a message for agoraphobics it would be: "Don't give up. You might not know how you're going to get over it, but you can."

In 2006, Stef beat favourite William Boyd by winning the Costa Book of the Year Award for The Tenderness of Wolves. All the research paid off as her portrait of a small Canadian settlement in deep midwinter was so authentic that when her winning novel was published in North America, Canadians were convinced that she had spent weeks researching the book there. Penney's win was all the more remarkable because her book had been rejected by "quite a lot" of publishers before being bought by Quercus.

Book and writing awards

Costa Book of the Year 2006 (The Tenderness of Wolves)

Similar authors to Stef Penney

Mark Mills, Kate Morton and Sophie Hannah.

View

Reviews

View all Write your review

“loved it”

I totally loved this book I could not put it down. A must buy must read book

mrs reader

30th June 2013

Comment (0)

Report

Helpful? Upvote 0 Downvote 0

“Good, but not brilliant”

I'll start by saying I did enjoy this book. It is extremely well written with some beautiful language. There are some wonderful characters; Moody, Parker and Mrs. Ross are particularly strong. As with one of the... More

Nocturnal bibliophile

7th April 2011

Comment (0)

Report

Helpful? Upvote 0 Downvote 0