The novel focuses on elk, wolves, and humans, which, Huber writes in the preface, “until the coming of white Europeans … existed in a state of equilibrium—two predators who hunted in small packs or clans and a prey animal that existed in numerous herds of dozens and hundreds. The predators killed only enough to sustain their small populations. The prey’s numbers were kept in balance by their pursuers.”
Based on two years of research and observation, Huber’s story mixes fictional characters with historical events. It culminates in the great debate “pitting ranchers and hunters against wildlife watchers and eco-tourists” over the question of reintroducing gray wolves into the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. (Speculative chapters at the end take readers to 2031 and beyond to show how anti-wolf government policies might be changed.)
Huber, a hunter himself, brings nuance to the novel’s debate about restoring the ecosystem. But the wolf must be part of that balance. “In Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley,” an author’s note says, “Scott was privileged to experience close encounters with wolves and their pups … enchanted by the beautiful songs of gray wolves near Wyoming’s Sunlight Basin.”
Chapters take readers into the minds of the humans and the other animals, using indigenous names throughout. From the nineteenth century through our own time, here are the tales of Chili the elk, Nuni and Omah the wolves, Pohogwe (Po) the Shoshoni (Tukudika) archeologist, and many more.
Without wolves, the burgeoning elk population devours aspens the beavers need, ruining their habitat; then the beavers are taken by coyotes and killed by cars when they try to make for better waterways.
But this is a novel of possibility; the gray wolves, “the Isa, creator gods of Shoshoni mythology, began singing their approval.” Huber invites readers to join in.
