About the Book
'Vivd, tremendous, unforgettable' - KIM STANLEY ROBINSON on WHEN THERE ARE WOLVES AGAIN, the extraordinary speculative novel of past, present and future, a Guardian Best Science Fiction Book of 2025.Decades from now, two women sit beside a campfire and reflect on their life stories.Activist Lucy's earliest memories are of living with her grandparents during the 2020 pandemic and discovering her grandmother's love of birds. Filmmaker Hester was born on the day of the Chornobyl explosion and visits the site years later to film its feral dogs in the Exclusion Zone. Here she meets Lux, the wolf dog who will give her life meaning.Over half a century, their journeys take them from London to the Highlands to Somerset, through protests, family rifts, and personal tragedy. Lucy joins the fight to restore Britain's depleted natural habitats and revive the species who once shared the island, whilst Hester strives to give a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves.Both dream of a time when there are wolves again.A novel of life and of hope, WHEN THERE ARE WOLVES AGAIN is perfect for fans of Clade by James Bradley, The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall, and The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson.
About the Author :
E. J. Swift is a speculative fiction writer based in London. Her short fiction has been nominated for The Sunday Times short story award and the British Science Fiction Association award. Her previous novels include The Osiris Project trilogy, Paris Adrift and The Coral Bones, which was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Kitschies' Red Tentacle, and the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel.
Review :
Confirming EJ Swift's standing as a writer of urgent, beautifully crafted eco-fiction, her latest novel is haunted by the legacy of Chornobyl. When There Are Wolves Again suggests a new beauty might lie within our reach if we commit, as do Swift's characters, to rewilding, species reintroduction, activism of one sort or another, and a dutiful stewardship of the land. I'm left with a much-needed feeling of optimism.
When There Are Wolves Again is an extraordinary novel, compassionate, urgent, and beautifully written, both intimate and sweeping in its depiction of our natural world and the two women who fight to save it. It has perfectly merged literary and speculative fiction into an instant classic
Written with deep care and fierce hope, When There Are Wolves Again offers thoughtful answers to urgent questions about our future. It's a joy to read - effortlessly controlled and textured, moving in its details yet bold in scope - and a brilliant example of what can be done with the tools of speculative fiction
When There Are Wolves Again is by turns tragic, terrifying, uplifting, poetic, vast in its ambition and devastatingly human in its scale. It carries you along in an almost dream-like state through the best and the worst of the humanity in an age of crisis, imagining a future both heartbreaking and in the end, full of urgent, soaring hope
Wonderful . . . this is what science fiction should be doing now . . . a novel that tackles head-on the hard problem of writing about the near future; it does so with clarity, creativity, an eye for detail, and unfailing empathy
A remarkable work. Beautifully written and sensitively observed, it demonstrates how great speculative fiction can speak to our present and prepare us for the future. Swift has written a powerful and necessary novel, one that beautifully captures the precarity of our current times whilst anticipating and preparing us for the struggles that will inevitably come ahead. It confirms Swift as one of modern speculative fiction's key visionaries, and as one of our most engagingly human writers.
Swift's exquisite writing brings life to everything from soil to sky...It's a novel to make you touch grass, and dream of wolves
The most important, the most courageous, the most uplifting novel I have read in years...one of the UK's brightest younger talents in speculative fiction
One of our best writers. Her new novel more than lives up to the expectations generated by its predecessor [The Coral Bones]
The use of nature is lyrically described, the power of science to explain the danger and aid us to do better is carefully explained but the human element is where this story excels, to tell us that we as a collective group can do better and this is what it could potentially look like. Coming back to that feeling of uncertainty it's a word that also doesn't mean all is lost there is . . . this is excellent science fiction for the twenty first century because this gives us that feeling of possibility - hope. I think When There Are Wolves Again is going to be a book hard to beat for my favourite of the year. Incredibly strongly recommended!
Poetic, passionate and incredibly thoughtful . . . Swift's insights are considered, plausible, and in the end affirmatory. Her writing, tied indivisibily as it is to her personal convictions, goes from strength to strength
Powerful, emotive stuff, and [this novel] has touched me far more deeply than I would ever have expected
This book is powered by a passionate love of nature and deep concern for the planet's future . . . Evocative and beautifully written, this character-driven novel also inspires as an argument for rewilding in Britain
WHEN THERE ARE WOLVES AGAIN is another of E.J. Swift's beautifully written, moving and eloquent letters to the natural world, and to the power of humanity to address the damage we inflict upon it. The Chernobyl disaster, extrapolated into a vividly realised near future world, brings two unforgettable characters into a narrative of exploration, reparation and hope. Swift gets better and better.
WHEN THERE ARE WOLVES AGAIN is gentle and inspiring eco-fiction. Full of charm and intimate detail, with exquisitely written relationships, both human and lupine. You'll never look at rewilding the same way. This is a book full of hope, sorely needed in a world that seems to lack it
This novel is vivid. It has a great eye for canines, a great ear for human speech, and a great heart for the world, including the future world we are making. Add to that the dark but ever-fascinating Matter of Chernobyl, and the result is tremendous, unforgettable.
'An eco-masterpiece . . . a story by turns tragic, alarming, uplifting, poetic and ultimately hopeful. Swift's accomplished prose and vivid characterisation connect large questions of the planet's destiny with human intimacy and experience'
