Lone Wolf: A Novel [Kindle Edition]

Jodi Picoult (Author)

Book Description

THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING SENSATION TELLS A PROVOCATIVE STORY ABOUT FAMILY SECRETS, LOVE, AND LETTING GO IN HER UNFORGETTABLE NEW TOUR DE FORCE.

On an icy winter night, a terrible accident forces a family divided to come together and make a fateful decision. Cara, once protected by her father, Luke, is tormented by a secret that nobody knows. Her brother, Edward, has secrets of his own. He has kept them hidden, but now they may come to light, and if they do, Cara will be devastated. Their mother, Georgie, was never able to compete with her ex-husband’s obsessions, and now, his fate hangs in the balance and in the hands of her children. With conflicting motivations and emotions, what will this family decide? And will they be able to live with that decision, after the truth has been revealed? What happens when the hope that should sustain a family is the very thing tearing it apart?

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Estranged from his family while living in Thailand for the past six years, Edward Warren is summoned home to New Hampshire when his father, Luke, a renowned wolf expert, and Edward’s 17-year-old sister, Cara, are critically injured in a car accident. Cara’s wounds are not life-threatening, but Luke has suffered severe brain damage and languishes in a vegetative state doctors say is irreversible. As his father’s legal next-of-kin, it falls to Edward to make the hard choices about life support and organ donation, a nearly impossible responsibility, given that father and son parted on angry terms the night Edward tried to confide to Luke that he was gay. Then Cara becomes a volatile advocate for her father’s right-to-life, taking impulsive steps to wrest control away from Edward. Though the author’s loyal “Pi-cult” following will drive demand, this latest offering lacks the emotional nuance that may have won Picoult her fans. Worthy discussions about critical end-of-life medical and moral issues are often eclipsed by overwrought teenage melodrama and heavy-handed working of the “lone wolf/Luke Warren” trope. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling Picoult will conduct a national author tour backed by extensive advertising and publicity for this topical drama by a reliably prolific and avidly popular author. --Carol Haggas

Review

“Nobody in commercial fiction cranks the pages more effectively than Jodi Picoult.” --USA Today

“Compelling... fascinating... this page-turner will keep you wondering.” --People Magazine

"Impossible to put down." --Library Journal

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 1176 KB
• Print Length: 434 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1439102740
• Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books; 1st edition (February 28, 2012)
• Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005JSV0ZW
• Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,232 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #20 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Psychological Thrillers
  • #43 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Family Life
  • #57 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction > Domestic Life

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

183 of 198 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Winner! February 28, 2012

By Bibliophile By the Sea TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Jodi Picoult, is an author known for her novels dealing with complex and controversial issues, Her 19th novel, Lone Wolf, just released. The story for the most part takes place in Beresford, New Hampshire, and once again, it's a story which packs a punch.

When Cara Warren, age 17, calls her father, Luke to pick her up after being out with friends who have had a bit too much to drink, father and daughter are involved in a serious automobile accident. Where Cara recovers from her injuries after surgery, her father is not so lucky. Luke has suffered a TMI (traumatic brain injury) and has only a 10% chance of recovery. He is being kept alive by life support -- a ventilator and feeding tube.

Luke is divorced from Cara's mom Georgie, and has been estranged from their son Edward for the last six years. Edward, left home at age 18, after an incident involving his father Luke. He left a note for his mother, but never bothered to said goodbye to his father. When Edward receives a frantic call from his mother, Georgie, informing him about his sister and father's accident, Edward takes a 24 hour flight home from Bangkok, Thailand where he has been living and teaching.

With no legal advance directives in place for Luke, the siblings find themselves at odds over whether or not to end their father's life, and a legal battle ensues. To complicate matters, Edward locates a handwritten note of his fathers, giving him the authority to make decisions for him if he were ever unable to make them for himself. Edward was just 15 at the time that both parties signed the note.... It was signed at a time when Luke, a man with a Zoology degree who loved the great outdoors, had decided to leave his family to spend (2) years in the Canadian forest living among the wolves and studying wolf migration. The same man who use to tell his children that if he could have chosen to never interact with humans again he would have. --- According to Luke, "animals don't disappoint as humans do."

----"A wolf pack is like the Mafia, everyone has a position in it; everyone is expected to pull it's own weight."

----"My father taught me wolves can read emotion and illnesses the way humans read headlines."

The story is told in alternating chapters by the characters. Luke, Georgie, Cara, Edward, and Georgie's new husband Joe, an attorney. All of the characters were developed, most were sympathetic, and each interesting and complex in their own way. Some of the characters have baggage and secrets, each has a story to tell. I enjoyed all of their stories however, in my opinion, it was with Luke's character that the author outdid herself with some powerful characterization -- simply fantastic.

As I read the chapters from Luke's POV, I was moved by all that I read about the world of wolves, and interesting dynamics between pack behaviors, and human behavior. Throughout the story Luke compares how wolves versus humans might have reacted in a particular situation. It is obvious that Picoult did her homework while researching the behaviors of wolves with experts in the field. Luke's childhood and young adulthood, his life as a husband and father, is ever-so-interesting, as is the in-depth account about his life spent among the wolves. A man who many people thought of as a genius, while others thought of as insane. The writing in this area is riveting! I loved how the author was able to demonstrate Luke's less than perfect parenting skills, but yet his unquestionable love for his children.

---"People assumed that the reason I walked away from the pack that day was because of the harsh conditions had finally become overwhelming -- the weather, the cold, the near starvation, the constant threat of predators. But the real reason I came back is much simpler. -- If I hadn't left at that moment, I know I would have stayed forever".

As you can probably tell, I really loved Lone Wolf. It was at times both thought-provoking and emotional. Especially heartfelt was watching what Georgie had to endure, as she witnessed her two children battling over their father's fate. This page-turner should make for some lively book club discussions. Highly Recommended. Read more ›

120 of 133 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Predictable February 29, 2012

By amy feld

Format:Hardcover

I like Jodi Picoult and include some of her books among my favorites. Her last few books have been sentimentally predictable, none more so than LONE WOLF.

Luke Warren and his daughter 17-year-old Cara are in a car accident that leaves him on life support with no chance of regaining consciousness. Brother Edward returns from overseas, having been absent for seven years after a falling out with Luke. Told in the voices of Luke, Cara, Edward, and Georgie, Luke's ex and Cara and Edward's mother. Edward wants to remove life support and donate Luke's organs. Cara wants to keep her father alive, hoping for a miracle.

Cara is one of the least sympathetic characters Picoult has ever written. She's narcissistic, spiteful, sneaky, and immature. While I can understand a teenager wanting her father to recover, this young woman often reads as a caricature. Edward is much more sympathetic and realistic as a 23-year-old man trying to do the right thing for his mom, dad, and sister, but sometimes making matters worse through assumption and lack of communication. I never got the feeling Cara was trying to do the right thing, it was all about Cara.

My favorite part of the book was that Edward was a gay character, but that was just one part of who he was the same as if he had blue eyes or red hair. He didn't have a partner and wasn't dating during the 17 days the book took place. Picoult did a masterful job making him no different than any characters. I never thought of him as a gay character, because he was just a character who happened to be gay.

The sections written in Luke's voice are basically an allegory between wolf relationships in packs and family relationships. Luke has lived with wolves on and off and almost considers himself more wolf than human.... His sections take away from the flow of the book, and frankly often bored me. If people are very interested in wolves, they would probably like these sections more, but much of what Luke (in a coma) wrote bored me.

I expected more. I'm not sorry I read the book, but in the future I might just wait until I can get her next book from the library. There's no need to rush out and buy the book, you can wait for the paperback or library and save some money. Read more ›

56 of 60 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars A "Lone" on wolf facts March 5, 2012

By realwolf

Format:Hardcover

This is just what the wolf doesn't need; a book wrapped in wolf hype. The wolf is a fascinating creature on its own. Why does Picoult chose to ruin her story with phony wolf facts. The wolf is one of most researched animals and there is a whole cast of credible biologists. Unfortunately for the reader, Luke eats and breathes wolf fiction that ruins the entire story. Picoult's reputation for gathering research just hit bottom. Invest your money and time elsewhere.

208 of 245 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars More "Bull" Than Wolf March 1, 2012

By Cornelia N. Hutt

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Unflattering as the story of Little Red Riding Hood is to wolves, no rational adult believes that a wolf could eat Granny and then climb into bed wearing her nightgown. But readers believe Jodi Picoult because many, like me, have been impressed with the author's meticulous and exhaustive research into the subject matter on which the plots of her other novels are based. This attention to detail makes the stories credible and the outcomes believable.

Thus, I am incredulous at the degree of inaccuracy and the amount of absurd misinformation about wolves in Lone Wolf. The editorial review above references "Picoult's impressive research into wolf biology, hierarchy and pack mentality." Wrong. Picoult didn't do her homework properly this time, and her reputation for getting the facts in order just plummeted into the abyss.

As a wolf educator and writer of wolf curricula for teachers and non-formal educators, I am frankly infuriated by the sheer nonsense in the "Luke" segments of the book. In an effort to debunk the myths about the wolf as "the beast of waste and desolation," Picoult has created an equally unscientific, inaccurate and ultimately harmful portrayal of wolves and of wolf packs. Why did she not go to the books and articles by the renowned researchers and scientists like L. David Mech, founder of the International Wolf Center - a man who has spent over 50 years studying wolves and sharing his knowledge with the general public? What about the other science-based wolf education organizations that have web sites crammed with solid information about the biology and ecology of wolves? They include the Wolf Conservation Center, the California Wolf Center and the Red Wolf Coalition....

As for a human living with a wild wolf pack, that is the stuff of ancient legend and of the baseless boasting by a few self-promoting individuals who think that a human can "become" a wild creature and who dishonor animals by ascribing to them human characteristics. Anyone who believes a person claiming to have been accepted as a member of wild wolf pack is naive in the extreme.

Picoult should have carefully checked the credentials of her information source. Because she didn't do that, wolf educators' jobs have been made that much harder, and the "real" wolf has once again been subjected to ludicrous - and tragic - misrepresentation. Shame on Jodi Picoult. Read more ›

More About the Author

I grew up on Long Island with my parents and my little brother, the product of a ridiculously happy childhood. My mom says I've been writing as long as she remembers - my first masterpiece was "The Lobster That Was Misunderstood," at age 5. I honed my writing skills beyond that, one hopes, before I headed off to Princeton, where I wanted to work with living, breathing authors in their creative writing program. Mary Morris was my teacher/mentor, and I really do believe I wouldn't be where I am today if not for her guidance and expertise. I had two short stories published in SEVENTEEN magazine when I was in college. However, when I graduated, a desire to not eat ramen noodles exclusively and to be able to pay my rent led me to take a job on Wall Street (not a great idea, since I can't even balance my checkbook). When the stock market crashed in 1987, I moved to Massachusetts and over the course of two years, worked at a textbook publishing company, taught creative writing at a private school, became an ad copywriter, got a master's in education at Harvard, got married, taught at a public school, and had a baby. My first novel was published shortly after my son was born, and I've always said that the reason I kept writing is because it's so much easier than teaching English.

In fourteen years, I've published thirteen novels: Songs of the Humpback Whale, Harvesting the Heart, Picture Perfect, Mercy, The Pact, Keeping Faith, Plain Truth, Salem Falls, Perfect Match, Second Glance, My Sister's Keeper, Vanishing Acts, and the upcoming The Tenth Circle, this March. Two of my books (Plain Truth and The Pact) were made into Lifetime TV movies; Keeping Faith will be another. My Sister's Keeper is in development at New Line Cinema to be a feature film. And there isn't a single day that I don't stop and marvel at the fact that when I go to work, I get to do what I love the most.

My husband Tim and I live in Hanover, NH with our three kids, a dog, a rabbit, and the occasional donkey or cow.

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