Inside the Wolf

Amy Rowland

Jul 2023 · Hachette Audio · Narrated by Hillary Huber

About this audiobook

A haunting, "exquisitely written" novel that explores the true costs of tradition, gun ownership, masculinity, and Southern mythmaking through the lens of an accidental shooting that reverberates across generations (Fiona McFarlane, author of The Night Guest).​

Rachel Ruskin never intended to return to her family’s tobacco farm in Shiloh, North Carolina. But when her academic career studying Southern folklore in New York City flames out, she has no choice. Back in her hometown in the wake of family loss, she is alone, haunted by memories, by ghosts, and by Shiloh’s buried history of racism and violence.

When another child is accidentally shot and killed, however, Rachel can no longer avoid confronting her own past wrongs; nor can she continue to hold herself apart from her community. How can the people of Shiloh reconcile their love of hunting and their belief in tradition with the loss of more children? How can she find a way back to those she grew up loving? Drawn into the rhythms of Shiloh and in search of a place to be-long, Rachel must question everything she grew up believing and at the same time find a way to accept those around her.

Haunting, fierce, and urgently topical, Inside the Wolf is a page-turning and redemptive novel about masculinity, guns, violence—and the American past. 

About the author

Amy Rowland is the author of two novels. The Transcriptionist, (Algonquin 2014) received the Addison M. Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is the recipient of fellowships and residencies from the National Endowment for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, the Norman Mailer Center, and the Sewanee Writers Conference. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in The New York Times, The Southern Review, The Iowa Review, Literary Hub, New Letters, and elsewhere. She is a former editor at the New York Times Book Review and she is currently a lecturer at UC Berkeley. She has also taught at Princeton University and at The School of The New York Times.