The Wolf Road: A Novel

An Amazon Best Book of July 2016: Beth Lewis’ debut novel, The Wolf Road, is a brilliant amalgam of literary thriller and gritty western. Long after a cold war mis-step has turned back the clock, gold rush fever and vigilante justice are once again a way of life. After a devastating storm, a scrappy young tomboy is taken in by a strange tattooed backwoodsman who names her Elka. Elka is raised in isolation amid the wilderness until, at age eighteen, she ventures into town for the first time. Once there Elka learns horrifying things about the man she thought of as her daddy and sets off immediately to distance herself from him and try to find her parents. On her journey, Elka’s wits are put to the test time and again, but she is a child of the wilderness and lives by its rules, “You ever see a bear jump off a cliff ‘cause life handed him a few rough draws? No, you don’t. The wild keeps going till it don’t have strength in its muscles and bones. The wild don’t give up; it’s forever and so was I.” Inner fire, honest vulnerability, and an endearing sense of humor, make Elka a remarkable character; and since I finished The Wolf Road I have missed her. And I expect that I will for a good long while…--Seira Wilson, The Amazon Book Review