Fiction in Review: Tell The Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

It’s so hard to describe this book, and that is really a first for me. I describe dozens of books to people each week, here on the blog and in real life. I am rarely at a loss when it comes to words about books, but this one defies category. Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt is a stunning debut novel, filled with longing and sadness. It’s a story about grief and one girl’s bravery to reach out to overcome it.

The novel follows young June, a 14-year-old girl battling the heartache of being in high school and being different. But she’s also battling the fact that her uncle, the person she loves most in the world, is dying of AIDS. The story is one where family misunderstandings, the hurt that a sister can inflict, and the value of objects are all threads intricately woven into one. It’s a story where the memories have a currency, but also mean so much more when viewed with a different lens.

My favorite quotes from Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt:

(This is hard, because there are so many. Also, read on Kindle, so sorry no page numbers!)

“Watching people is a good hobby, but you have to be careful about it.”

“I felt like grabbing the paintbrush right out of his hand so I could color him in, paint him back to his old self.”

“I lay in bed thinking about everything in my heart that was possible and impossible, right and wrong, sayable and unsayable, and when all those thoughts were gone there was only one thing left: how terribly much I was going to miss my uncle Finn.”

“I’ve never met anyone yet who might make that kind of promise.”

“Greta always knew how to make me lose my words.”

“I stared out the car window and understood that I was in a place where nobody knew my heart even a little bit.”

“Either you’re a falconer or you’re not. Either the birds come back to you or they fly away.”

“Everything she said was vague, like the details might stab her if they got too sharp.”

“That’s what being shy feels like. Like my skin is too thin, the light too bright.”

“That’s what I want for you,” he said. “I want you to know only the very best people.”

“And until then I don’t think I really understood the meaning of gone.”

“I felt like I had proof that not all days are the same length, not all time has the same weight. Proof that there are worlds and worlds and worlds on top of worlds, if you want them to be there.”

“A portrait is a picture where somebody gets to choose what you look like. How they want to see you. A camera catches whichever you happens to be there when it clicks.”

“I stared hard, trying to find a pattern. Thinking if I kept looking hard enough, maybe the pieces of the world would fit back together into something I could understand.”

“And I suddenly understood that getting drunk was just one more way to leave this place, this time.”

“I really wondered why people were always doing what they didn’t like doing. It seemed like life was a sort of narrowing tunnel. Right when you were born, the tunnel was huge. You could be anything. Then, like, the absolute second after you were born, the tunnel narrowed down to about half that size.”

“I thought of all the different kinds of love in the world. I could think of ten without even trying.”

“I know all about tiny things. Proportion. I know all about love that’s too big to stay in a tiny bucket. Splashing out all over the place in the most embarrassing way possible.”

“It felt good to say yes. To agree to something so ordinary.”

“One thing I do know is that my superpower is gone. My heart is broken and soft, and I am plain again.”

“Everyone needs to think they have secrets.”

What made this a great story?

Carol Rifka Brunt tells a rather dark tale with dignity and grace, allowing June to be a kid and an adult at the same time. Its an accurate depiction of a young girl in search of her someday self, having to wade through some deep waters on the way.

There were so many moments where I want to stop and really soak the words in, her writing style is so fluid and lovely. As soon as I finished this novel, I quickly searched online to see what else she has written, and I was so, so sad when I realized this was her first book, and there are no others. This is a woman who was meant to write novels.

Have you read Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt? If so, what did you think about it? 

P.S. If you liked the language of this novel, you might like Happy All the Time by Laurie Colwin. Colwin has a similar style, but with a novel that is of a brighter hue throughout.