Set in the austere woods of northern Minnesota, History of Wolves is a coming-of-age-plus-crime story that explores, in the words of Emily Fridlund’s young narrator Linda, “the difference between what you want to believe and what you do.” Pivoting around a morally complex question—how complicit is the observer of a ‘crime’, a girl who neither fully understands her world, nor the consequences of her inaction? —History of Wolves is a beautifully paced, gorgeously written novel about guilt, innocence, negligence, well-meaning belief, and the loss of a child.