Lone Wolf: Walking the Line Between Civilization and Wildness by Adam Weymouth

Lone Wolf, notes author Adam Weymouth, is an unoriginal title, and that was intentional. The concept of the “lone wolf” is one of many ideas about wolves that seems to be baked into our culture and our history. Still, Weymouth’s journey, as chronicled in this captivating book, is one that follows a lone wolf, Slavc, in his long walk from Slovenia to northern Italy. Wolves are social creatures—they live and work together in packs, or family groups, comprising parents and their offspring, and occupying a particular territory. But Slavc was a lone wolf whose time had come to leave his pack and establish a new one. His trip was long and arduous, and he did not settle until he finally found a mate, many miles and months after his departure. 

This book offers brilliant insights into wolves and humans and how we have interacted over a long history. The idea of the “big bad wolf” is imbued in our culture, as Weymouth explains in his discussions of children’s books (Little Red Riding Hood, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Three Little Pigs, and Peter and the Wolf) and other cultural references. Wolves are feared, and wolves are loved. They kill, and they mother, as in the tale of Romulus and Remus. 

With this cultural background, Weymouth guides the reader through all the complexities of the expansion of wolves in Europe—the love for wolves, the dread, and the abject hatred. His journey is not one of advocacy, but rather one of learning. How do people respond to wolves? How might they have reacted if they had seen the lone wolf, Slavc, traveling through the countryside? 

The book had me spellbound. It’s a beautifully written story of two long and fascinating journeys—the journey of Slavc, and the subsequent journey of Weymouth—through the landscape of present-day Europe and the landscape of our long history with wolves. 

Learn more and purchase the book at Penguin Random House. 

Recommended by Liz Thompson