The Wolf Hunt is part saga, part suspense – a great fiction book pick for book club.
Do you ever wonder, at the most inopportune time: How well can a person know her child?
When a tragic and brutal crime strikes a Jewish community in a Silicon Valley suburb in the new novel The Wolf Hunt by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, the families within are shaken. Struggling to regain a sense of control over their own fates, a few parents are compelled to enroll their kids in a self-defense class taught by a man named Uri.
Lilach’s son, Adam, is one of those teens. A reserved and shy young man, Adam seems to finally find a comfortable place for himself among his fellow trainees. But when another incident shakes the town, Adam suddenly seems a little less knowable — and a little more reactive.
Lilach and her husband Mikhael are overwhelmed, understandably, as they contend with their son’s sudden shifts in temperament against the backdrop of the hate crimes that have upended their lives. They, too, find solace and comfort with Uri, whose measured, confident, and strong guidance sets out a clear path amid all that clouds their vision.
Touching on themes of racism, ostracism, adolescence, and fidelity, this novel is part family saga, part suburban suspense — and wholly riveting. It will undoubtedly provide your book club with ample points from which to spin the most enthralling conversations.
The Wolf Hunt
by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
Read an excerpt.
There are so many loaded and complex issues that come into play in The Wolf Hunt. Where to start when you’re gathered with your favorite bookworms? Try a few of these questions on for size before letting the conversation flow.
- The Wolf Hunt begins: “I look at the tiny fingers of a newborn baby and try to understand how they could possibly grow into the fingers of a killer.” Ayelet Gundar-Goshen’s novel begs the question: How well can a mother ever possibly know her child? What limitations are inherently present in the honesty that exists in parent-child relationships? Are there definitive factors or traits that enable a supremely honest relationship? At what ages and phases are those very honest relationships most at risk?
- Lilach and Mikhael hand over a fair amount of trust to Uri when their lives feel under duress. What is it about their situation that most plays into their willingness to trust Uri wholeheartedly?
- Lilach is on the fringe of her son’s school community’s cadre of mothers — even those with whom she has most in common with, at least superficially. What do you think most prevents Lilach from developing deeper relationships with these women? Do you think this is specific and unique to Lilach? Or is this a fairly common dynamic among mom communities?
- Ayelet Gundar-Goshen chose to set her novel in Silicon Valley. What is it about this setting — both place and time — that makes it the right choice for the events that transpire there? Where else could Ayelet have set The Wolf Hunt?
- What is the significance and meaning of the title of the book, The Wolf Hunt? Who do you think is the titular wolf? Is it Jamal’s murderer? Is it a play on “witch hunt”? Did the title set your expectations in a different direction for the book? If so, what were you expecting?
When Lilach and Mikhael are hosting their good friends from Israel at their very American home, they make Shakshuka for breakfast regularly. We’re always here for a fabulous egg dish, and so today we’re bringing it your way courtesy of Cookie and Kate. This version, very much inspired by and built on the dish that has become a staple in Israeli culture, is quite straightforward and will serve as a perfect foundation on which to riff.
“When our son was born, we gave him a neutral name — Adam — that would work in both Hebrew and English. A name that would slide down the throats of the Americans like good California wine and not stick in the esophagus like Lilach and Mikhael, names that give us away the minute they read them on our passports.” It’s this notion and the empathy we feel for this experience of early parenting that inspires our white wine pick today. What’s more, this Albariño from Joao Portugal Ramos will pair beautifully with your shakshuka in case you’re feeling like a little wine with your brunch.
Get the recipe.
Author Ayelet Gundar-Goshen knows that mothers make the best detectives. Perhaps these are the sleuths best suited to solving the hardest of cases. Read on to dip into the five reasons moms absolutely make the best detectives of all.
Read the essay.
If you liked The Wolf Hunt particularly for its exploration of the dynamics between parents and child, as the child evolves into an independent human potentially capable of wrongdoing, consider this contemporary classic of a thriller: Defending Jacob by William Landay. It too asks the question, “How well do we know our children?” It takes it one step further and asks: “How far would a parent go to defend them?”
Get the book - Defending Jacob by William Landay
About the Author: Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
Ayelet Gundar-Goshen is the author of The Liar and Waking Lions, which won the JQ-Wingate Prize, was a New York Times Notable Book, and has been published in seventeen countries. She is a clinical psychologist, has worked for the Israeli civil rights movement, and is an award-winning screenwriter. She won Israel's prestigious Sapir Prize for best debut.