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The Only Wolf Is Time
Air is a graffiti artist and self-described street hermit who spends his nights in urban encampments and days in public libraries, reading up on physics and ancient philosophy, all while scribbling his cryptic criticisms of society across every surface he passes. When his only friend dies of an overdose, setting off a frantic search for meaning, Air must choose between confronting his past or joining Anachron, a mysterious underground militia that has declared war not just on the government, but on time itself.
Told in restless, mind-bending fragments that blend influences as various as Albert Einstein with Zhuangzi, The Epic of Gilgamesh with Hesiod, and quantum mechanics with The Wizard of Oz, The Only Wolf Is Time is a one-of-a-kind lyric noir.
Told in restless, mind-bending fragments that blend influences as various as Albert Einstein with Zhuangzi, The Epic of Gilgamesh with Hesiod, and quantum mechanics with The Wizard of Oz, The Only Wolf Is Time is a one-of-a-kind lyric noir.
194 pages, Paperback
Published February 3, 2025
13 people want to read
About the author
Dan Tremaglio
2 books5 followersDan Tremaglio is the author of Half an Arc & Artifacts & Then the Other Half. His fiction has appeared in numerous publications, including F(r)iction, Gravel, Tammy, Literary Orphans, and Flash Fiction Magazine, and twice been named a finalist for the Calvino Prize. He lives in Seattle and teaches creative writing and literature at Bellevue College where he is a senior editor for the journal Belletrist.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 6, 2025
So what is going on with this book? It feels like Tremaglio has carefully written the book on ceramic tiles and then dropped them, he has carefully put them back together as best as he can remember, what we get is a mind-bending fragmented journey into grief.
As the main (?) story progresses the reader gets random bits of text thrown at them, adverts, questions, memories of events that may or may not have happened yet and when the moment the friend dies, the grief sends the whole book into a spiral…but as you get further and further into the book it all starts to make sense, the end of the book is leaking into the beginning, those questions that popped up earlier are all linked to the ending. Tremaglio has crafted something rather beautiful here…don’t they say that “from chaos comes beauty”?
The journey that our main character, Air, is on feels very reminiscent of McCarthy’s The Road, that surreal end times scenery where something bad has happened but you have no idea what and the limited dialogue between characters where language almost feels like it is in the process of being forgotten. Loved it….Also loved the villain of the piece, a large company created by Bill Jeffs that delivers packages in vans with smiles on the side…I have no idea who that could be based on. The fun bits are right there until the last paragraph where Tremaglio uses a Whale’s appendage to say The End.
The whole concept of this book was interesting, it is the sort of book that appeals to me as it demands more of the reader’s attention and it is the sort of book you’ll end up reading a second time to see if it ends the same way.
Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2025...
As the main (?) story progresses the reader gets random bits of text thrown at them, adverts, questions, memories of events that may or may not have happened yet and when the moment the friend dies, the grief sends the whole book into a spiral…but as you get further and further into the book it all starts to make sense, the end of the book is leaking into the beginning, those questions that popped up earlier are all linked to the ending. Tremaglio has crafted something rather beautiful here…don’t they say that “from chaos comes beauty”?
The journey that our main character, Air, is on feels very reminiscent of McCarthy’s The Road, that surreal end times scenery where something bad has happened but you have no idea what and the limited dialogue between characters where language almost feels like it is in the process of being forgotten. Loved it….Also loved the villain of the piece, a large company created by Bill Jeffs that delivers packages in vans with smiles on the side…I have no idea who that could be based on. The fun bits are right there until the last paragraph where Tremaglio uses a Whale’s appendage to say The End.
The whole concept of this book was interesting, it is the sort of book that appeals to me as it demands more of the reader’s attention and it is the sort of book you’ll end up reading a second time to see if it ends the same way.
Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2025...
Displaying 1 of 1 review