The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall, £17.99
CUMBRIAN-born Sarah Hall is celebrated as one of Britain's most talented writers of contemporary fiction - and she will have done her reputation no harm whatever with this, her fifth, novel.
The story explores the eccentric Earl of Annerdale's attempts to reintroduce grey wolves to the Lake District, hundreds of years after they were hunted to extinction in Britain (legend as it that the last one was actually shot at Humphrey Head near Flookburgh in the 14th century).
To help in this quest, Annerdale calls on Lake District-born wildlife expert Rachel Caine, who has spent nearly a decade monitoring wolves on an Idaho reservation.
She duly returns to her home county only to find herself with conflict, both professionally and personally.
A privileged early reader of The Wolf Border was the writer Val McDermid, who describes the narrative as 'so vivid, so visceral, so vital'.
Sarah Hall has achieved acclaim both as a novelist and short story writer. Her second novel The Electric Michaelangelo, set in Morecambe, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2004 and her short story Mrs Fox won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2013.
ALLAN TUNNINGLEY
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