Wolf Winter: A Novel

Cecilia Ekbäck

Jan 2015 · HarperCollins

About this eBook

Swedish Lapland, 1717. Maija, her husband and their two daughters arrive from their native Finland, hoping to forget the traumas of the past and put down roots in this harsh but beautiful land. Above them looms Blackasen, a mountain whose dark history haunts the lives of those in its shadow.

While herding the family’s goats on the mountain, Maija’s elder daughter, Frederika, stumbles across the mutilated body of one of their neighbours, Eriksson. The community dismisses the death as a wolf attack, but Maija feels certain it was murder. Compelled to investigate despite her neighbours’ unconcern, Maija is drawn into the history of tragedies and betrayals that have taken place on Blackasen.

Meanwhile, young Frederika is pulled toward the mountain as well, feeling something no one around her seems to notice. The seasons change, and the harshest winter in memory—known as a “wolf winter”—descends upon them. Struggling to survive, the settlers are forced to come together, but Maija, not knowing whom to trust, is still determined to find answers. As the snow gathers, the settlers’ secrets are laid bare. Soon Maija will discover the true cost of survival under the mountain—and what it will take to make it to spring.

Ratings and reviews

This is a murder mystery set in Swedish Lapland in the early 1700s. It is described in a context of religious conflict between an dictatorial, dogmatic, hierarchical and punishing religion and a spiritualistic, shamanistic, intuitive spiritualism. There are three narrators and three points of view. All are facing fears and all harbour secrets. Wolf Winter refers to those long cold stormy winters of endless duration but the term also refers to those trials we meet in life where we choose to face our fears or to run from them. The narrators are strong and interesting. They each have a story and they are linked together in believable relationship. We are left wanting to know more about each of them as they are strong people with lots to interest us. I regret the central 'hinge' in this story and it would be a spoiler to reveal it here. It is, however, our history.

About the author

CECILIA EKBÄCK is the author of Wolf Winter, which won the HWA Goldsboro Debut Crown and the High Plains Book Award. Her second novel, The Midnight Sun, was published to wide acclaim. Originally from a small town in northern Sweden, Ekbäck now lives in Canmore, Alberta, with her husband and twin daughters.