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.

Two Schoolgirls by James Cowie (1934/35) Aberdeen Art gallery

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.

Winter Portrait by Ingolv Helland

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 Medieval Woman An Illuminated Book of Days, Published by Key Porter Books

"The man looked pretty bad...his hand on his chest like he was trying to catch the very moment his own heart stopped beating."

Image included in The Medieval Woman An Illuminated Book of Days Nurse Feeding Sick Man, Psautier triple de Cantorbery

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.

Portrait of John Minton (1952) by Lucian Freud from the Royal College of Art collection

This was the image I used when I was thinking about the woods in the book.

Beech Leaves by Walter Cudnohufsky

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.

Map of the train line

Enthroned Virgin and Child French, ca. 1130–1140

Enthroned Mary and Child Burgundy, France 1130-1140 Birch with paint and glass. The Cloisters Collection.

 

The Cloisters

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.

Horn & Hardart Automat New York City 57th Street

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.

Playland. Rye, NY