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My sister Greta and I were having our portrait painted by our Uncle Finn that afternoon because he knew he was dying . . .

There’s only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus, and that’s her uncle, the renowned painter, Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her once inseparable older sister, June can only be herself in Finn’s company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies far too young of a mysterious illness that June’s mother can barely bring herself to discuss, June’s world is turned upside down.

At the funeral, she notices a strange man lingering just beyond the crowd, and a few days later, June receives a package in the mail. Inside is a beautiful teapot she recognizes from Finn’s apartment, and a note from Toby, the stranger, asking for an opportunity to meet.

As the two begin to spend time together, June realises she’s not the only one who misses Finn, and if she can bring herself to trust this unexpected friend, he might just be the one she needs the most.

Tell the Wolves I’m Home is a tender story of love lost and found, an unforgettable portrait of the way compassion can make us whole again.

Wolves Gallery

Some of the images that inspired the book

I was absolutely astounded when I came across this portrait--Two Schoolgirls by the Scottish artist James Cowie--in a book. I’d been working on Tell the Wolves I'm Home for over a year and my fictional portrait was just that, something that lived in my mind and on the page. To find that something so similar to my own imaginings actually existed felt strange and wonderful. The looks on the girls’ faces are so perfect and Cowie’s painting even has a metaphorical ideal male wedged between the two girls.
Every year I try to get to the BP Portrait Award exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The rest of the gallery is filled with portraits of famous people, but the BP paintings are almost all portraits of ordinary people. I have dozens of exhibit books, each one filled with dozens of faces. When I’m writing I’ll flip through to see if one of my characters might be lurking in there. This one, Winter Portrait by Ingolv Helland, is actually a self-portrait of the artist, but it felt very much like Finn to me.
I had something very similar to this when I was a teenager. I was surprised to see that copies were still out there. I snagged this one on Ebay.
"The man looked pretty bad...his hand on his chest like he was trying to catch the very moment his own heart stopped beating."
Like Cowie’s Two Schoolgirls, I stumbled on this Lucian Freud painting long after I’d created the character of Toby. Coming across it was like recognizing an old friend. The sad eyes, everything really, just felt like Toby. John Minton, an artist and illustrator, commissioned this portrait himself and five years later, age 39, took his own life.
This was the image I used when I was thinking about the woods in the book.
I spent many days getting to and from the city on the Harlem Line. That’s the train line I imagined June taking down to the city.
Enthroned Virgin and Child French, ca. 1130–1140
 
I still regret that I never made it to Horn and Hardart. As a kid I was obsessed with the idea that there was a restaurant where you could put your money in a slot and open a little door to get your food. Even hot food. It just seemed like such a great thing. Unfortunately, it closed in 1991 and somehow I never quite got there. So, instead, I let Finn and June have it as a special place in the book.
My family made many trips here when I was a kid. It was also the amusement park that appeared in the classic 80s film Big. I’m not sure if there really was a historical dress-up photo place at Playland, but in my mind it seemed like the right place for that kind of thing.
Mozart - Requiem in D minor

Wolves News

28/08 Tell the Wolves I’m Home: A playlist

When David Gutowski, aka Largehearted Boy, asked if I’d like to do a Book Notes playlist for Tell the Wolves I’m Home I was over the moon. Everyone has their ‘things’, and getting asked to do a Largehearted Boy Book Notes piece for my book was one of mine, not only because David has great taste and I love the … Read More

28/06 The First Reading Group Event

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A little while ago I received news that Macmillan, my UK publisher, was going to be launching a really interesting new program. They were running a competition to find twelve enthusiastic readers to form a reading groups panel. Panelists would get free books, meet authors and come in to London to discuss their take on books that seemed like they … Read More