Kiss Of The Wolf [Paperback]

Jim Shepard (Author)

Book Description

Series: Harvest American Writing | Publication Date: January 17, 1995

Joanie Mucherino, abandoned by her husband and trying to cope with her comically tactless Italian family, kills an acquaintance with her car and then discovers, to her horror, that she and her son will keep the act a secret. Harvest American Writing series

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Shepard's much-acclaimed thriller depicts a single mother who attempts to keep secret her involvement in a hit-and-run accident that kills an acquaintance.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-The festivities surrounding a young boy's confirmation prove to be the ironic setting for the evil events that follow. The celebration is fraught with lighthearted bickering and tense, overprotective concern for Todd and his mother Joanie, both of whom are recovering from the recent abandonment by Todd's father. It is with a sense of relief and recklessness that the two leave the family party. Driving home, the woman hits a pedestrian and cannot bring herself to call the authorities; instead, she allows her son to absorb her guilt into his newly awakened spiritual consciousness. Todd has nowhere to go with his pain; Joanie, however, allows herself to be comforted by an old flame whose questionable ethics and boorish behavior once repulsed her. Readers will come to know the violent envy and brutal paranoia that motivate this man and will read with horrified fascination as he insinuates himself into Joanie and Todd's lives. The juxtaposition of the comical, mundane familiarity of the Mucherino family and of the savage character of Bruno, as well as the universality of the moral issues involved, raise this book above the ordinary thriller to the level of real human tragedy. A compelling and disturbing novel.
Jackie Gropman, Kings Park Library, Burke, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (January 17, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156001403
• ISBN-13: 978-0156001403
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,166,104 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jim Shepard was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and is the author of six novels, including most recently Project X, and four story collections, including the forthcoming You Think That's Bad (March 2011). His third collection, Like You'd Understand, Anyway, was a finalist for the National Book Award and won The Story Prize. Project X won the 2005 Library of Congress/Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction, as well as the ALEX Award from the American Library Association. His short fiction has appeared in, among other magazines, Harper's, McSweeney's, The Paris Review, The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, DoubleTake, the New Yorker, Granta, Zoetrope: All-Story, and Playboy, and he was a columnist on film for the magazine The Believer. Four of his stories have been chosen for the Best American Short Stories and one for a Pushcart Prize. He's won an Artists' Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He teaches at Williams College and lives in Williamstown with his wife Karen, his three children, and two beagles.