In the Name of the Wolf

On the island of Achill, off the west coast of Ireland, Nora and Captain O'Higgins are troubled by their daughter's unexplained illness. Patty O'Higgins is a young woman suffering from lupus, a chronic tuberculosis of the blood disease. It's surrounded by ancient prejudice and fear because of one of its occasional side effects, a wolf-like distortion of the face. Mirroring her illness are strange events in her home community. It is during WWII; a German plane drops unused bombs on the mountain, disturbing the natural grounds, and from then on a strange presence, destructive and threatening, haunts the island and seems to concentrate its destructive forces around the life of the young girl. In the Name of the Wolf is a powerful story about human suffering and its ingrained nature in us, how we cope with it and how we survive. ""Deane neatly captures both the claustrophobic and comforting essences of village life, and his compact, supple prose has a poetic resonance.""-Publishers Weekly