Wolf Country

by Tünde Farrand

London, 2050. The socio-economic crisis of recent decades is over and consumerism is thriving.

Ownership of land outside the city is the preserve of a tiny elite, and the rest of the population must spend to earn a Right to Reside. Ageing has been abolished thanks to a radical new approach, replacing retirement with blissful euthanasia at a Dignitorium.

When architect Philip goes missing, his wife, Alice, risks losing her home and her status, and begins to question the society in which she was raised. Her search for him uncovers some horrifying truths about the fate of her own family and the reality behind the new social order.

Genres: Dystopia, Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Horror, Speculative Fiction, Ebooks

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 17, 2018

Reviews

[inciminci · Rating 3 out of 5]

A while ago I reviewed a book with the opening line “I never thought I'd write one of those reviews that start with 'I wanted to like this book so much, but...' and here we are.”

Well, here we are again. I'm not very happy about it but there is no other way to say it – I found Tünde Farrand's Wolf Country unexciting, to put it mildly, and its characters bland. It was a long and tiresome slog through wolf country and there aren't even wolves around. It was a dystopia with no real dystopic elements, only an amplified version of today's consumer society, of course set in a future London, of course it is. A commentary on said society unexpectedly dissolves into an individual “happy” ending where characters ascend into financial security but the rest of the society is as miserable as ever. There were pretty big plot holes. Even the halfway exciting parts in the last 10% of the story managed to be unexciting. But it somehow kept me reading, interesting. I'm adding a star for the mention of snuff movies.

I've read this for the Indie Book Club June monthly read.

[Blair · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a strange experience this book was. It's awkwardly written, sloppily edited, and has plot holes the size of oceans, but the underlying story is extremely compelling. I kept thinking 'I'll just read a bit more, find out what happens next', and I kept thinking that until I'd read the whole book. It imagines a future (about 35 years from now) in which the UK population has, en masse, been moved into various levels of free accommodation in 'megacities'. This comes at a cost, of course: old age, disability and ill health have been demonised into extinction, and at retirement age, everyone enters a 'Dignitorium' where, after a year of deluxe living, they are euthanised. Additionally, anyone living in free housing must keep consuming to justify their 'Right to Reside', else they risk being demoted to a lower class – or, worse, to the Zone, a lawless wasteland lying outside the walls of London. Our narrator, Alice, finds her comfortable life beginning to unravel when her husband Philip disappears and she's suspended from work. Convinced Philip is still alive, Alice starts questioning the system and reaches out to her estranged sister – one of the mega-rich Owners – for help.

Wolf Country reminded me of Suicide Club by Rachel Heng (similar in its depiction of a supposedly utopian future which is nightmarish beneath the surface, and similarly unfocused, though the plots are kind of opposites) and The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist (both books feature forced retirement to a luxurious facility, and both have a cold, distant protagonist it's difficult to feel anything for). While this is an uneven book – the ending in particular is very odd – there's no denying it held my attention. Still, I'm not exactly sure whether I can recommend it.

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[merixien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bu kitap geçen ayın sürprizlerinden biri. Hiçbir beklentim olmadan arka kapağını ilgi çekici bulup okudum ancak beklediğimden fazlasını buldum.

Yıl 2050 Londra. Devlet artık sürdürülebilir bir yapı olmaktan çıkmıştır. Bu yüzden de yeni çözüm yolları aranmaktadır. Yaşlılar artık topluma faydalı değildir. Gerek emekli maaşlarının yarattığı yük, gerekse yeni toplumun ihtiyacı olan tüketici profiline sahip olmamaları açısından ilk gözden çıkarılanlardır. Artık toplumsal statünüzü aylık olarak yaptığınız harcamaların tutarı belirlemektedir. Distopya türünde olmasından dolayı çok sürükleyici ve kolay okunan ama araya da mesajlarını sıkıştıran, insanları geleceğe ve dünyanın gidişine dair biraz tedirgin olmaya davet eden kitaplardan birisi. Kitabın tadını kaçırmamak içim konu ve karakterler hakkında bir şey söylemeden geçeceğim. Sadece benim olumsuz bulduğum tek şey sonunun ciddi bir şekilde aceleye getirilmiş olmasıydı. Onun dışında distopya severler için biraz fazla tanıdık gelebilir ama yine de pişman etmeyeceğini düşünüyorum.

3,5/5

[Sammy Alexia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad I read this. Kudos for the cover designer, by the way.

Others have recapped the plot at length so I won't. What you need to know at a glance is that this a dystopian vision of the world a few decades from now, where some currents trends have got a lot worse. Particularly the divide between haves and have-nots.

Comparing it to books in the same genre, which is pretty crowded, I wasn't completely convinced of the plausibility of this. Maybe it wasn't subtle enough. But the characters were well drawn and the plot gripping.

[Oriente · Rating 3 out of 5]

Van ugye nekem ez a kényszeres küldetéstudatom, hogy a magyarul frissen megjelent science fiction könyveket mihamarabb bevizsgáljam, ha pedig egyenesen magyar szerző friss könyvéről van szó, akkor különös figyelmet szenteljek neki. Tünde Farrand ugyan britföldre szakadt honfitársunk, nem is magyarul ír, de mégiscsak bele esik ebbe a második kategóriába, úgyhogy nagy érdeklődéssel fogtam bele a könyvébe.

Az extremizált fogyasztói társadalom disztópikus színezetű tematizálásával már nem is tudom hányadszorra találkozom - hát nyilván nem véletlenül, és fontos dolog ez, ütősek tudnak lenne az ilyen közeljövőbe plántált görbe tükrök -, csak olyan nagyon nagy kár, hogy ritkán kerül igazán jó író kezébe a téma.
A Farkasország szelíd diktatúrája, amely racionalizált propagandával, illetve az ún. non-profit személyek hatékony kiiktatásával építi és élteti a fogyasztói kategóriákba álmodott pszeudo-kasztrendszert önmagában egy elég szépen kidolgozott vázszerkezet, ebben akár végtelen számú remek regényt is meg lehetett volna írni. Sajnos ez most nem sikerült, mert ez a történet nemes egyszerűséggel bárgyú. És miközben a szerző rendkívüli erőfeszítéseket tesz az igazán irodalmi szöveg előállítására, számos technikai hibát vét a karakterek felépítésében - ami hát egy ilyen belső kibontású, mikroszemszögű, érzelmekre hatni próbáló társadalmi sci-finél elég hervasztó. Ettől aztán végig az az olvasó benyomása (jó, nekem volt az a benyomásom), hogy ez talán nem egy túlságosan okos könyv. Mit mondjak, az utolsó fejezetek tartalmi megoldásai ezt a sejtésemet konkrétan és végérvényesen alá is támasztották.

Igen sokra tartom a következetes és átgondolt világépítést, de annyiszor futok rá erre, hogy egy szerzőnek nincs igazán jó története, vagyis nem tudja mit is kezdjen a világában mozgatott szereplőivel. Csak beleszuszakol egy csomó érzelmet, drámát és konfliktust az összetákolt cselekménybe, amiket egyszerűen nem hiszünk el, mert nem működnek, és így születnek ezek a fura torzók, mint ez is.

[Karen Mace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think it's a scary reflection of the times we live in nowadays when you read a book like this and you're not left wondering 'what if' but 'when' this will become a reality - and that's the clever thing about the way this story is written as there are already glimpses of the world we live in but just taken to the next degree, and it's a truly terrifying prospect facing Alice and her family as they're left to justify their 'Right to Reside' in a world that wants rid of those people who don't 'earn their keep' - be they the elderly, the sick, the unemployed - and they are left to make a choice as to when they want to die as not to drain the resources enjoyed by the 'Owners' and the wealthy.

Life in 2050 is a seemingly simple affair - if you're one of those working and thus qualify for the free housing, in separated areas linked to the type of job you do, and if you're married with a family or single. But most people know no better so they're happy with a system that rewards them for making a contribution, and they believe the message from those in charge that the retired or sick are just a drain on society and are not worthy of wasting money on. So their options is to move to a 'Dignitorium' where they will live out a period of time before meeting a peaceful end. It tears families apart, including Alice and her family of her sister, parents and grandmother - it's heartbreaking seeing how heartless some can be to their own families because they believe what they're being told. The elderly remember the world the way it was so only see this new system for how unfair it is and can do very little about it other than comply or go off grid.

When Alice's husband Philip goes missing after a terrorist explosion, her life is blown apart, and changes beyond recognition. It's only then that she starts to see problems with the system and the more she finds out, the more horrified she is about the lies she's been told.

She's also forced to seek out her sister, Sofia, who has a completely different experience of the way this world works, and when the sisters meet up you can't help but notice how much hostility there is between them and realising how broken their relationship has always been.

I was totally transfixed by this story - horrified too - and it is a fascinating debut from this author. It's one of those books that really gets under your skin. The way the residents are portrayed in their compliance with a system that we see as being so wrong, but they see it as a world with order and purpose and see no reason for why those in charge would lie to them. A classic case of the 'Divide and Rule' way of life and it made for such a chilling and captivating read that I'm eagerly anticipating more from this author in the future!

My thanks to the publisher for the advanced reading copy in return for a fair and honest review

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 3 out of 5]

An undemanding (I would say more young adult level) dystopian fantasy

I was never fully convinced the author had a full handle on all the nuances of how her futuristic dystopia really operated.

The main protagonist seemed a little naïve in her belief in the system, and then perhaps a little too quick to decide what she had always believed was wrong, based on a single conversation or incident.

Nevertheless I read the book in only a few sittings over one day and was sufficiently interested (gripped would be perhaps too strong a word) that when I got off the train (having read the first 100 pages or so) I carried on (Milkman style) reading-while-walking for my 15-20 minute walk to the office.

2.5 stars rounded up.

[Hulyacln · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tüketimin din olduğu, satın aldıkça yükseldiğiniz bir dünya düşünün. Şimdiki halimizden ne farkı var diyebilirsiniz, haklısınız.
Ama bu dünyada (bahsi geçen zaman ve yer: 2050-Londra) sınırlar daha keskin. Tüketmeyen nam-ı diğer ‘faydasız’ insanların, yaşlıların, artık çalışmayanların, engellilerin ‘GururEvi’ denilen tesislere gönderilip; zamanı geldiğinde ‘uyutulup son yolculuklarına uğurlandığı’ bir sistem bu.
Alice de bu sistemin sessiz sakin bir parçası. Ta ki eşi Philip kaybolana kadar..
.
‘Kurulan distopik sistemin olağan ya da tanıdık’ gelmesi, tehlike çanları çaldırıyor içimde. Yaşanılan ve içinde bulunulan zamanla benzerlikler taşıyan bir distopya Kurtlar Ülkesi de. Bu benzerliklerin bazılarını söyleyeyim:
Tüketim çılgınlığının freni boşalmışçasına artan hızı, vicdani değerlerin körleşmesi, ‘güçlü=haklı’ denkleminin sıklıkla karşımıza çıkıyor oluşu ve toplumsal yapıların giderek birbirinden ayrılması/katmanlaşması.
.
Bazı bölümlerde aklımda tamamlanmayan-eksik kalan noktalar kalsa da, çok akıcı bir eser Kurtlar Ülkesi (Bu sebeple ‘kitap okuyamıyorum-şöyle kendine çeken bir kitap olsa’ diyenlere öneririm) . Ayrıca Tünde Farrand’ın pek çok eserden ve alandan beslenmiş olduğunu görmek de güzeldi.
.
Mehmet Emin Baş çevirisi, Barış Şehri kapak tasarımıyla ~

[gesztenye63 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Soha nem kedveltem a disztópikus alapvetésű (úgy is, mint elrettentő jövőképet felvázoló) regényeket, azonban bukkantam már rá közöttük kifejezetten minőségi darabra is. Nem ez volt az.
Csak néhány – reményeim szerint, nem túl dehonesztáló – gondolat, aztán mindenki helyezze el a könyvet a táncrendjében úgy és oda, ahogyan és ahová gondolja:
– alapvetésként indítunk egy brit földön kb. három évtized alatt kialakult (értsd: általánosan elfogadott és támogatott, gazdaságilag működő) aberrált társadalmi berendezkedésből, amely egyfajta antihumán fenntartható fejlődés-modellre épül (később akad valami utalás arra, hogy más államok is átveszik a mintát) és bizonyos társadalmi rétegek szisztematikus, rendszerszintű megsemmisítésével marad működőképes;
– ez a fura, embertelen társadalmi rend egy részleteiben nem ismertetett gazdasági apokalipszis (tulajdonképpen a hagyományos társadalom- és egészségbiztosítási rendszerek összeomlásából adódó gazdasági válság) egyfajta kiútjaként merül fel a semmiből – szóval lóg a levegőben a regény világa, és ha van kedved, találj ki hozzá, valami hihető, működőképes előzményt (megjegyzem, nem egyszerű, szerintem egy közgazdaságtanban jártasabb olvasó lelkesen metélné a csuklóját olvasás közben);
– két idősíkban vezetett mesélő technika, melyek közül feltételezem, az egyiknek az lenne a célja, hogy a közelmúlt történéseinek bemutatásával megágyazzon a másiknak, amely bizony a jelenidőben futó cselekmény vezetésére hivatott. A probléma csak annyi, hogy cselekmény nincs, így meglehetősen nehéz a szerző feladata a néhány, ötletszerűen felengedett múlt-lufi rendszerbe helyezésével, vagyis óhatatlanul öncélúvá válnak a múltra mutató közlések is;
– a karakterkészlet kimerül néhány egydimenziós figurában, akik cél és feladat nélkül billegnek ide-oda és leginkább az év talán legbénább csattanójára várnak, hogy végre lezáruljon nyomorult sorsuk;
– a történet töltelékeként túlnyomórészt használt dialógusok, kimódolt, erőltetett szituációk legjava általában életszerűtlen, kényszeredett, és az alapvető konfliktus által törvényszerűen megkívánt mélységes érzelmi töltetet még nyomokban sem tartalmazza;
– a történetből való menekülésként a szerző egy milliószor elcsépelt (lásd „A menekülő ember” és társai) ötletet vet be, a rendszert működtető hatalom hátterének kvázi magyarázataként és óhatatlanul belekeveredik egy kínosan erőltetett konteo gondolatmenetébe;
– mindezt lezárandó pedig kapunk egy olyan szirupos végkifejletet, amely bármely színvonalasabb Romana, vagy Júlia füzetkében bőven elférne, a szakorvosi rendelő előtti várakozás hasznosnak nem nevezhető, de legalább unaloműző kitöltésére.

Összességében középszerű, jellegtelen tucatáru. A Farkasország számomra nem lett az év sikerkönyve, de mindez csupán az én személyes impresszióimra alapozott vélemény, azért csak tegyetek vele egy próbát.

[Sgrtkn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hiç beklemedigim yerden hiç beklemedigim şeylere evrildi. Hızlı okunan, merak ettiren, değişik bir distopya

[Nicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a good audiobook. It’s a quiet dystopian, not the sort full of marauding motorbike gangs or zombies, aspects of near future novels I’m not keen on. What I liked about this story was the fact that I could imagine something like this happening in the future. I kept thinking where I would fit into this sort of society or perhaps I wouldn’t and I’d be sent to the Dignitorium?

I liked Alice the main character and enjoyed the way she told her story, although I must admit I was a bit confused at times when her her thoughts about past events were intermingled with the present day. I’m glad I had an ebook (thanks to the publishers, Lightning Books) beside me as I listened to the audiobook as it really helped me to understand what was going on.

The mystery of what happened to her husband’s disappearance took Alice on quite a journey of self-discovery. She’d always accepted what she’d been told about ‘the collapse’ and that the new ways being better that the old, unlike her husband Philip who’d always questioned everything and couldn’t understand why she didn’t. I must admit that at one point I thought Alice’s behaviour was incredibly naive and almost cringed as she went about trying to solve some of her problems. I can’t say much more about the mystery as it will spoilt it for you, but it was really good and there were real surprises towards the end.

Amaka Okafor the narrator for this book was fantastic, She had a quite an intimate voice which was oddly comforting for such a bleak story. This is the first time I’ve come across her voice talents and will definitely be adding her to my list of favourite narrators.

I thoroughly recommend this one if you enjoy chillingly plausible novels set in the near future.

[CrowCaller · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wolf Country: a sad woman stares out windows until she wins the lottery, no wolves involved

★☆☆☆☆

(1 star)

I’m a pretty wide genre reader besides not liking romance, and I actually have a sharp interest in near-futures and dystopias in particular. Wolf Country also has a really eye-catching cover and name, and the promise of a Black Mirror like book is one I fell for.

Wolf Country though is like some bizarre mix of a mopey thriller and a confused political piece. It barely delivers a stance on things and has such an absurd ending- to a plot that begins more than halfway through the book.

It’s 2050. The wealth gap is so extreme the entire country of England is rebuilt from the ground up. And allegedly, there’s mutant wolves.

Also on my blog here.

Plot

Alice is a typical sad woman thriller protagonist: her husband died mysteriously but the government can’t show a body, and she has no kids. In the start of the book, which we cut to a few times, we see her future self arrive at a huge mansion. Her sister, whom she had a bad relationship, ran away and married into the top 1%.

In the future the wealth lines are so severe there’s a bunch of Special Capped words around them: Non-profitible, Low-Spender, Mid-Spender, High-Spender, and Owner. Owners, the 1%, own all the land of England, while everyone else lives in megacities designed from the ground up to be livable and efficient. Everyone benefits from Right To Reside which gives free housing to everyone, though rather than pick a home it’s decided for you based on need. As long as you meet your spending quota each month, you can stay in your place, proving you contribute to society.

How this is all afforded and possible is because of Dignitariums, large luxurious retirement homes for those who have worked for at least ten years and no longer can contribute to society. Here elderly people (and sick ones) live in three phases: honeymoon, nine months of luxury; sedition, where they’re on very powerful drugs for three months, then the Termination Wing, where they’re peacefully put down.

Everyone in this society also has implanted trackers behind the ear, which somehow is never a plot point. There’s also the Zone, a wild half of London with no laws where non-profits are sent. Outside the cities is tons of unclaimed wild countryside where giant wolves the size of vans live. Church is now just a mandatory mega-church of capitalism that pays you to go.

Our main character is sad and lonely. Her husband, Philip, disappeared in a terrorist attack where he’s presumed dead. He never wanted kids but she did, and they’d argue it a lot. She winds up depressed, but using the government sponsored medical app to get help leads to her getting suspended from her school job for being on meds. Being out of work means no money, and no money means no spending, and thus no house.

She’s forced from Mid-Spender to Low-Spender and is sad, staring out windows at people and children a lot. She befriends a young mother who was once a High-Spender but lost it when she chose to raise her daughter with Down’s. Children with illness, disability, or other such conditions are encouraged to be given up for ‘Youth Dignitariums’, and it’s considered heartless to let them ‘suffer’.

Alice mopes around staring out windows more. A nurse from a Dignitarium, who she befriended, tells her unexpectedly her husband Philip is alive and in one. This is actually part one of the book, and if you read the above carefully, you’ll realize nothing happens, certainly nothing Alice does.

Alice meets up with her husband Philip, who has two weeks left before he goes on seditives. He checked himself in here secretly because he’s going blind and doesn’t want to be a burden. Despite them pretty much always fighting whenever we see them, they rekindle their relationship. Alice begins trying to learn if Philip can be removed from the Dignitarium and learns another resident was bought out when his daughter married an owner.

Now for part three, the shortest part at the very end. Alice goes to visit her sister Sofia for the first time in 2 decades, when her sister first ran away from home. Sofia and her had a horrible fight and never got along well, but Sofia lets Alice in. Sofia requires Alice listen to her monologue before she’ll even think about giving her the money she needs to save Philip.

Sofia explains how messed up the world really is. She was dating an Owner’s kid, and they decided to sneak into an exclusive Owner’s club for over twenty ones. Inside they saw what you can guess: a movie theater where a guy is filmed hunting a teen boy in the woods. A stage where a man is performing torture on a live woman to the suggestions of the audience. A huge lounge where security cameras show every Termination Wing in the country whenever someone dies. Instead of euthanasia, they give a painful poison and leave them to die slowly.

Sofia was so disgusted she ran back to the home she left, but Alice was such a jerk and basically told her to get out, so Sofia did, returning to marry her boyfriend. She grew to enjoy watching people die in the T-Wing, including her parents, saying being an Owner just makes makes you empty and hedonistic. There’s literally an evil council of extra rich Owners who decide all the rules to keep people subservient and take away more and more rights. She had a kid, but her husband died to fancy drugs.

After telling all this to Alice, Sofia says all she wants and has wanted for a long time was for Alice to come raise her daughter. Sofia raised her daughter claiming to be her aunt and said one day her real mother would arrive, and Sofia always planned for that to be Alice. Alice is naturally motherly and nurturing, Sofia is not, though Sofia also wrote years worth of fake letters to her daughter pretending to be, evidently, her sister Alice.

All this weird child raising stuff isn’t portrayed as creepy, it should be said, it’s barely pondered, and the daughter loves Alice instantly anyways.

Sofia only has like a month to live, so she makes Alice agree to raise her daughter in exchange for buying Philip from the Dignitarium and restoring his eyesight. Sofia commits a peaceful suicide and leaves Alice with her mansion and daughter, and Alice pays for her friend and her friend’s daughter with Down’s to come live with them.

Pacing and writing

This isn’t that long a book, but dear god- it is over half the book we learn Philip is alive, the first plot point. Then the plot is simply her and him talking at the Dignitarium. The last section she gets lectured by her sister. Very little happens and much attention winds up on mundane conversation or details.

The writing is extremely sparse and dull. I browsed my copy a few times looking for quotes to highlight it and found none that worked- it was all so uniformly drawn out and nothing I’d need to transcribe at least a page to try and make a point.

Alice herself is an extremely passive character. The main plot point of Philip is something she is told by someone else, and not because she’s come up with a plan to look for him or particularly asked, it feels almost inidental. And can you get more passive than the ending, where she arrives in the nick of time to win a child, healthy husband, and billions of pounds by virtue of doing nothing?

Slowing everything down is that half the book is flashback. To… Nothing in particular. Her life with Philip, which gives us a bit more exposition about the world and their relationship, but is not plot relevent.

I could argue there isn’t a plot point to be found in this book. There is no aspect of the story which comes back to surprise you, or a thread weaving it all together. It’s inanely flat.

Alice as a lead, as I keep saying, is nothing. She stares out windows at children a lot thinking about how much she wants one. She changes in this book, but it feels unearned every time. We have to take her world for it that she went from bubbled participant in hell capitalism to cynic. It’s more the book tells us this, in prose that happily mixes present and past tense.
The future tech

Near future stories always interest me in seeing predictions of the future, of what the next logical conclusion might be. Wolf Country just doesn’t get it though.

The hardest thing to get over is the central conceit of the future. In the face of economic collapse, all the infastructure in England was neatly redone into megacities built by grids and monorails. It’s such a ridiculously huge project to redo everything in London alone. And then the Zone, this weird lawless wasteland in the city you can still just go visit. Still, these are necessary for the book’s world to exist, so I can accept them.

The Dignitariums, with their fairly cheeky names, are pretty realistic as an idea. The cost of elderly and ill people is high, culling is obviously an evil but known idea, and the propaganda around them isn’t even that much a lie- they’re portrayed as luxurious hospices, except for the whole secret painful poison thing. The obvious other dark side is that this is a way to clean up any undesirables, as there is no welfare at all. Once you stop contributing, you are killed. It’s a good extreme idea of hell capitalism.

The book though just doesn’t work with its own ideas enough, probably because we have an inactive lead more interested in windows. The anti-aging and other such propaganda makes sense, the spending quotas and weird mega-church vibes of money ectasy suggest a world where people are forced to buy useless junk they don’t need in order to live a life like everyone else. A world where one slip leads to poverty and death and there is no sympathy, where TV is full of desperate people fighting to stay relevent enough to be rich. These are good bases to work on and good ideas, but Wolf Country has a very shallow look at it all.

The technology all is very minimal too. For a book from 2018, I’d say the vision of the future is quite 2008. People all wear ID phones on their wrists. TV is now called the Globe and is a sphere that projects holograms. Everyone owns an E-trolley, which follows them around automatically. That’s really it for the ideas. It doesn’t feel like it’s 2050 at all and seems very short on social media or the internet. If you want a good sci-fi near future Black Mirror book with smart guesses about future tech, look at Everything About You – Wolf Country seems like the author didn’t even care.

Wolves

So there’s no wolves in this book.

In two ways.

One, literally the giant wolves aren’t real. They’re made up by the Owners to keep the population afraid, excuse their human-hunting, and make people think there’s less livable land. The images shown on TV I mean the Globe are just fake. It’s made up by that secret council (which by the way, secret illuminati societies just always have this weird anti-Semitic glow to them).

Two, we don’t hear about wolves in this book. They are basically never mentioned, and the first time we learn they’re supposedly the size of cars is well over a hundred pages in. That’s ridiculous. There’s supposedly giant nuclear mutant wolves and it just never comes up? No one ever mentions it? Why is the book so shy about this titular aspect of the world? Obviously the wolves turn out to be metaphorical, but before I was positive they weren’t real I was confused by how little they are mentioned.

At one point though the main character remembers going on holiday to a holiday village and walking to the fence where wolf country was, where lots of people were holding up watches to try and film wolves. It does make you question- if the wolves aren’t real, surely people would all know by now. There’s fake images and fake video probably, but do they have fake robots so tourists at this wall sometimes see one? Otherwise people would definitely catch on no civilian has ever see a wolf in the wild. I mean they’re the size of cars! Even if no one is allowed in the countryside, they wouldn’t be hard to spot from the outside.

Down’s Syndrome Mums

A very specific issue that keeps coming up in techno-thrillers: that annoying self righteous patter of how tragic down’s syndrome kids are and how brave their parents are. In The Girl Before it was actually quite offensive how the plot point of the main character potentially having a child with Down’s was portrayed. Wolf Country has the same kind of issue, and it makes me sad. Is this normal, from people who are uneducated about disability rights? You get the same thing about autism, which I and most people I know have.

The child character in this book with Down’s, Felicity for brevity’s sake, is about five. Now there’s something very true in the notion this hell government promotes eugenics, a lot of modern people are startlingly pro eugenics for disabled people. In fact, there’s a propaganda reality TV show in this world just about the evils of mothers who make their disabled kids live rather than being euthanized, and I don’t actually find that absolutely ridiculous.

What feels disingenuous to me though is how Felicity is used as a prop. She is spoken about as this pure, innocent, perfect angel who is instantly beloved and lovely despite society being taught to hate people who aren’t ‘normal’. (The book does in fact use this term). Felicity’s mother is called brave, admirable, seen as this sketch of a heroic overworked mum who does it all for her poor daughter. It’s the same thing you see everywhere, and though it doesn’t seem it, it’s demeaning.

Felicity here has Down’s so she can be tragic but secretly beautiful, and her mother can be brave for loving her. She isn’t just a kid, she is a prop. There’s so many real life blogs out there that use the same language, about the struggles and horrors of caring for a disabled child, all of which seem to boil down to looking for praise to be willing to.

In this world in particular Felicity’s mother is actually losing and risking a lot, yes, but ignore that. You’re not a hero for thinking a disabled child is a lovely angel. That’s a child, and a child inherentlydeserving love. You are not brave, and the child is not some gift of a testing god, that’s a child, with the highs and lows of childhood, and as a parent your job is to raise and love that child. A child is human, not a challenge to receive a medal for.

You can tell it’s a peeve of mine, but I feel like this book, with these side characters, falls extremely into the above zone in how it describes and uses these two.
Conclusion

Read Everything About You instead.

Wolf Country is a badly written book that barely has any ideas to deliver, and it fails on each baby step it takes. The non event of a plot is one the lead mopily stumbles into, and the ending is simply silly.

Though if my long lost sister wanted to give me like a billion dollars, a mansion, and a perfect daughter, that’d be sick.

[Marta Clemente · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Terra de lobos" tráz-nos uma Londres de 2050 onde o consumismo tomou conta da sociedade.
Esta divide-se em "Proprietários", uns poucos de privilegiados, "Grandes consumidores", "Consumidores médios" e "Pequenos consumidores". Cada um deles tem uma zona específica para morar, padronizada e com um tipo específico de moradia e de condições de vida. Quanto mais consomem, mais têm hipóteses de subir na vida. Aliás, para se manterem no nível em que estão têm obrigatoriamente de obedecer a consumos mensais.
Esta é uma história perturbadora. Conhecemos a família de Alice e Sofia, duas irmãs com ideais de vida e ambições totalmente diferentes, mas cujas vidas acabam por se cruzar de uma forma inesperada. A visão da velhice e da morte , a forma de lidar com elas, foi o que mais me impressionou neste livro.
Apesar de algumas incongruências na história, esta foi uma leitura compulsiva, que recomendo.

[John Brassey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dystopian novel with echoes of The Hunger Games, Soylent Green and The Prisoner, this novel is set only thirty years in the future and describes an experiment in social engineering that is chilling but sadly believable as the government comes up with a scheme to put an end to the drain being put upon the country by old people and non-contributors.

The book moves along with good pace and short chapters and I enjoyed the structure of the society that the author has created and the story of Alice who is initially accepting of what is happening but ultimately learns the truth.

I found the novel very visual and could easily see the rights to this being picked up by a TV or film producer. It is possible that the author had this in mind in creating an ending (the least satisfactory part for me) which could well lead to a sequel.

[Karla Brading · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so honoured to be able to finish the year off with such an exquisite book: courtesy of Buzz Magazine (I write reviews for them). This is but a brief note to say, Tunde Farrand unsettled me, chilled me and broke me with every page. BRILLIANT writing!

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alice is a mid-spender - a dystopian version of middle-class, where people's worth is determined by the amount of money they throw into the economy (ie spend). Once someone becomes "non-profit", due to age or infirmity, they commit voluntary euthanasia - at least, it's allegedly voluntary. This new way of organising things has been set up because the old way, with the elderly spending their twilight years living off the state (actually their hard-earned pensions, but never mind, Alice isn't supposed to realise that), was bleeding the economy dry, apparently. It's a clever gimmick, a societal shift that isn't too far from plausible in current society, and Farrand effectively shows the kind of brainwashing and numbing that goes into making the vast majority of people go along with it.

This book starts strong, muddles around in the middle, and then gets much, much better in the second half. Partly this is a function of its structure: three intertwining stories running on different timelines, gradually filling in a full picture. Partly it's because the main character, Alice, is problematic at times; nicknamed "princess" by her loving father, she lives up to this moniker with extreme vapidity, apparently determined to believe the heavy-handed lies about the society in which she lives, even as the horrific aspects of it become crashingly obvious to the reader, and while she brightly relates the sad tale of her husband's doubts and his subsequent disappearance.

The impetus picks up once Alice learns the truth about her husband's disappearance and starts taking some initiative - in quite amusingly flaily ways at first, kind of like a kitten testing out its claws. But it isn't until we reach the third act, and the conclusion of the first strand of the novel - the truth about the disappearance of Alice's sister, Sofia - that things really come into focus. The ending is one of the most interesting aspects of the novel, and so I won't spoil it, because it's very much worth forging through to that point. I'm intrigued about where the story is left, and am wondering if a sequel is in the works. There's certainly some interesting material there!

[Naama Yavor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited about the premise, but ultimately was disappointed with the plot as well as with the writing style. The second half of the book is especially slow and mostly monotonous, with Alice visiting her husband daily and them having the same discussions and doing the same things...

The ending, in which Alice finally visits her dying sister, doesn't fulfil its potential. Most of it is boring and repetitive, and I don't feel like we, as readers, get a satisfying explanation for why things in this world are the way they are. Why do owners keep dying young if they can afford the best healthcare? If Ownership is passed through marriage (and also through saving "inferior" spenders, like Alice intends to do), then how come new Owners don't change the regime? Why are Owners such sadistic pigs, anyway? The shock factor from discovering their torturous ways isn't enough to satisfy our desire to learn about the world the book is set it.

Alice's character is totally wishy-washy, doesn't care about her husband's wishes and keeps trying to persue her goal of saving him when it's the last thing he wants. The book ends with her becoming an Owner and waiting for him to join her, after she had previously raised the possibility and he refused it.
I the end, I feel like the attempt to wrap everything up in a neat bow doesn't come across as believable.

[Dominic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what an amazing debut from this author! I'm a fan of dystopia and this is a chilling depiction of where our world could be in the very near future - ' Wolf Country' - 2050.

Tunde Farrand writes wonderfully and I especially enjoyed the use of past/present chapter timeframes and how the protagonist Alice's view of the 'new' social order changes as the story unfolds.

This book had me hooked and works on so many levels not only as a dystopian thriller but also raising issues of elitism, social conditioning, ageism and demonising the weak and vulnerable in society. Highly recommend.

[Joana Campos · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Great dystopian novel

[Tanya · Rating 2 out of 5]

There must be a reason why ninety-six per cent of people choose retirement over instant euthanasia. [loc. 622]

A near-future Britain in which secure employment and free (urban) housing are provided to those who earn their Right to Reside by consuming luxury goods. The cost is not financial, but social: when an individual can no longer work, they are entitled to a year's luxury retirement at a Dignatorium: after that, euthanasia.

Which actually doesn't sound so bad -- no more retirement homes, slow helpless undignified deaths, poverty et cetera. Except of course it's not that straightforward.

Alice is abandoned by her husband, who's missing presumed dead: within days, her carefully-tended consumer lifestyle is crumbling around her, and she is 'demoted' from High Spender to Low Spender. She begins, belatedly, to ask some questions about this new social order, and gets some answers she really doesn't like. She's forced to contact her estranged sister Sofia, now one of the elite Owners, who explains the horrifying truth behind the state's promises, and the fate that awaits Philip.

This is an odd book. It's not wholly successful, and the prose is unexciting: but it's a compelling read, though I found it hard to sympathise with selfish, blinkered Alice ("I used to be a brainwashed consumer zombie... how could I have known better?") even when she began to realise the real story behind the Dignatoriums and the Right to Reside. I'm not sure the finale fitted the rest of the book, and it certainly goes against the stated wishes of the person most drastically affected by it . And I would have liked more background on the world outside London. The British countryside's basically off-limits, and ordinary people are discouraged from venturing out of the cities by the threat of giant mutant wolves -- the reality of which could have been expanded upon. But what about the rest of the world? There are mentions of America, but little else.

An accessible depiction of a dystopia, but I don't think it's sufficiently consistent or coherent to be truly frightening.

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some good ideas in this book, but the execution just doesn’t hold up. It tries to be a critique of capitalist consumerism but keeps falling off track, sometimes to the point of absurdity. Although I wanted to carry on reading to find out what happened, the latter half was definitely a trudge to get through.

The main character, Alice, is not engaging. Things just sort of happen to her, and she’s not the best at piecing things together. Her conviction in the utopian (but actually sinister and cynical) system is one of wide-eyed naivete. Until evils are directly pointed out to her by other characters, at which time her views make a sharp and immediate 180.

I also didn’t like a disabled child being used as a device for the abled main character’s self-improvement. Disabled people do not exist for abled people to use to prove what Good People they are.

[Elisabete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uma distopia sobre uma sociedade baseada no consumismo e em que esse mesmo consumismo define a posição social de cada um. Acompanhamos Alice completamente integrada neste mundo, basicamente com uma mega lavagem cerebral e que ao longo do tempo, devido a eventos muito próximos, começa a abrir os olhos e a perceber os defeitos do mundo. Gostei bastante da forma como seguimos o "despertar" de Alice, o seu descontentamento e por fim a sua força de viver e de ser diferente.
A parte final podia ter tido direito a mais páginas ou um pequeno epílogo mas também não desgostei totalmente de como terminou.
Esta é uma distopia mas há aqui muitos pontos de contacto com a actualidade e que nos deixa a pensar sobre que caminho irá escolher o mundo real. Recomendo.

[Andreia · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://d311nh4.wordpress.com/2019/12...

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really bad. Really, really bad. Do not read.

[Jackie Law · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wolf Country, by Tünde Farrand, is set in a future dystopian England. The rise in cost of supporting welfare claimants – the old, the sick, the disabled – was regarded as economically unsustainable so the elites changed the system. Only they may now own property, living in fenced off tracts of land in the countryside or in exclusive high rises in the city. Others – those capable of earning their Right to Reside – are provided with a home in a redeveloped area of a city, its size and facilities based on their monthly spend.

High Spenders populate the salubrious areas with Mid Spenders aspiring to join their ranks. Low Spenders are given little space and less security. People who run out of funds – non profitables – are either sent to a walled off wilderness known as the Zone to die amongst gangs of criminals or, if they had been consistent spenders for enough years, retire to a Dignitorium where they will be looked after for a set period of time before being terminated.

The story is told from the point of view of Alice, a school teacher married to an architect, Philip. On Boxing Day he goes missing, presumed dead in an explosion at a shopping complex. Distraught at her loss Alice struggles to cope, especially when she realises their extensive savings are severely depleted. Instead of looking forward to the expected promotion to High Spender, she faces the prospect of a future downgrade.

Chapters move around in time to offer glimpses of Alice’s childhood and then courtship with Philip. Her older sister, Sophia, had been a keen proponent of the new social order, going as far as to turn in a non profitable family member who resisted the local authority’s demand that they enter a Dignitorium. Alice hasn’t seen or spoken to Sophia since she left the family home to marry the son of an Owner.

Dignatoriums are not just for the elderly. Anyone who cannot maintain the prescribed lifestyle as a profitable member of society is regarded as an unacceptable drain on resources paid for by the hard working. Non profitables are openly castigated with anyone supporting them accused of selfishness in allowing them to live.

Philip’s father, a talented artist, lives in the Zone where he has somehow managed to survive for several years. He disapproved of his son’s choice of wife, regarding Alice as a willing puppet of a deeply flawed and cruel system. When Alice tries to find out what happened to Philip she gradually uncovers the truth behind the propaganda she has accepted all her life.

The denouement offers a salutary lesson. Although a bit much in places for my tastes, the clever final lines once again raise the bar and leave a strong impression.

Given contemporary attitudes to those in need – the rise in hate filled rhetoric and blaming of the poor and displaced – this is a chillingly believable depiction. The writing style brought to mind Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go with Alice’s compliant acceptance of the brain washing that ensures propagation of blatant consumerism and dehumanising of the needy or aged. The structure and flow are well balanced with moments of tension adding to reader engagement. This is an addictive and worryingly prescient read.

[LeatheHatless · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful political comment on the capitalist society.

It's not an easy read but I feel it's important to get through it. It's easy to ignore some of the costs of our lifestyle. Yes, the book takes it to an extreme, but it still has some truth to it. What are we willing to ignore in order to keep our current lifestyle?
Sure, our society doesn't seem as evil as the one on this novel, but only if you don't think about the human and environmental costs of technology like smartphones or fast fashion.
How the people that make our clothes make so little compared on how much the brands make of profit. The horrible conditions they work on and how little factories care for them. Then, the society of Wolf Country doesn't seem as exagerated.

I'm lucky to live where I do and to have all I do. Others are not as lucky and this book shows that. I will say it is as important as other dystopian novels. A must read.

[Filipa Maia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was just ok. As a dystopia falls behind many books of this genre.

This book as a good plot: it starts by showing us a society that follows the principle of equality over equity; it establishes very well the rules and the role that everyone has in this new society.

But the main story - Alice's life - didn't get me. I find Alice very petty, since a little girl, everything has to be around her. She continues like this throughout her life, unwilling to listen to others, until the day misfortune falls on her doorstep. The lack of communication between every single character of this book is nerveraking: Alice's parents, her sister, her husband.

I hate every character in this story (except the nurse) but most of all I hate this ending. Wait! What? THIS is the ending? Really?

[Willow Rankin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Its not that its terrible; the premise is really interesting. The idea that in the future, due to pressing concerns of resources - the world is changed to Owners, High Spenders, Mid Spenders, ow Spenders and the non-profit. Where everyone is valued on their ability to spend in this new world.
Whilst, this is an interesting concept, it is let down by a plot I didn't care about, and characters who were dull and insipid. Especially our main character.
Ali or Alice is dull, selfish and completely ignores what is going on around her. She makes mistakes and rather than feel for her - instead I feel like her problems are entirely created by herself. Further, she never once listened to her husband, although this isn't a surprise considering her relationship with her sister.
Overall, a great premise but executed by a terrible plot and main character.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A frightening vision, but maybe nearer than one would hope

This dystopian story could be closer than it's bearable to believe. The very rich ruling the world from their ivory towers, persecuting the sick, disabled, and those who don't fit their norms. The rich buying up land and property, forcing out the less well-off. The constant need to spend to sustain the economy, with little thought or consideration for those who care for elderly or disabled relatives. This is a dystopia, but could well be a future if things continue the same way that they are.

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chilling dystopian fiction

I couldn't put this down. Like all good science fiction it addresses the most difficult questions of our time. A nightmare future world were people are rewarded for consumption and those who can no longer spend are banished into the brutal fringes of existence and all people who reach retirement age are sent for euthanasia in
Dignatoriums were the are led to believe the receive a peaceful death. A dark secret underpins this nightmare society....