cover image Wolf by Wolf

Wolf by Wolf

Ryan Graudin. Little, Brown, $18 (400p) ISBN 978-0-316-40512-6

In a story that imagines what might have followed had the Axis powers triumphed, a Nazi doctor’s concentration camp experiments turn Jewish-born Yael into an Aryan beauty, inadvertently allowing the 17-year-old to manipulate her appearance like a shapeshifter: “The girl who was no one. Who could be everyone.” After joining the resistance, Yael takes the form of national darling Adele Wolfe in a cross-continental motorcycle race on a mission to get in the same room with Hitler and end his rule. Graudin (The Walled City) crafts another fast-paced, enthralling tale of sacrifice and dogged determination as she fuses alternate history and spy-thriller suspense. During each leg of the sprawling race, Yael searches for allies—deciding whether to trust Felix, Adele’s twin brother, or Luka, the girl’s onetime love interest—and attempts to maintain her cover. Simultaneously, she struggles to maintain a grip on herself and her past, which is peeled back layer by layer in exquisite flashbacks. A provocative rumination on self-preservation, the greater good, and the boundaries that keep heroes from becoming as cruel as those they fight. Ages 15–up. Agent: Tracey Adams, Adams Literary. (Oct.)