The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall £8.99

For almost a decade Rachel Caine has turned her back on home, kept distant by family disputes and her work monitoring wolves on an Idaho reservation. But now, summoned by the eccentric Earl of Annerdale and his controversial scheme to reintroduce the Grey Wolf to the English countryside, she is back in the peat and wet light of the Lake District.

The return of the Grey after hundreds of years coincides with her own regeneration but as Rachel faces impending motherhood and attempts a gradual reconciliation with her estranged family, her work with the Earl begins to generate public outrage and threats of sabotage.

The Wolf Border explores the fundamental nature of wilderness and wildness, both animal and human but while the wolves begin to settle in their new environment it is the humans surrounding them that struggle, that are unpredictable and destructive.

CAROLINE REECE, WATERSTONES, KENDAL