Feed Them Silence

This impressive novella from Mandelo (Summer Sons) probes the bounds of human empathy in the face of ecological crisis. Sean, a middle-aged researcher in the year 2031, embarks on a study that will link her brain to the brain of a wolf whose habitat has been shrinking rapidly. Her wife questions her motivations, and indeed, Sean’s interest in experiencing a wolf’s perspective of the world is initially largely personal. But as the season changes and the wolves struggle to survive, she becomes increasingly invested in the pack’s ability to persevere and thrive. Mandelo achieves a remarkable feat in capturing the wolf’s-eye view, creatively and believably describing the interiority of a wolf’s mind and offering a complex look at what effect Sean’s connection to this different way of thinking might have. Through this close link between woman and wolf, Mandelo delivers a powerful message about environmentalism and the limits of technology that doubles as a page-turning story about a collapsing marriage. Urgent, intimate, immediate, this is sure to wow. (Mar.)