Wolfe's History: A Family Story

by Brendan Wolfe

Wolfe's History, by the author of Finding Bix (2017), wraps its arms around a single, sprawling Irish and American family. In an opening essay, Wolfe introduces a cast of larger-than-life characters-from an Old West barkeep and a Gold Rush pharmacist to an IRA fugitive and a British recruit whose loyalties are tested during the Easter Rising. Together these fast-talking, writerly cousins live intricate lives that move quickly between past and present-complete with periodic and sudden outbursts of violence. A man is set ablaze on the prairie. A Jesuit is tortured in Dublin Castle. In the author's sure hands, their stories are converted into something broader and more searching than just a single family's journey. He wonders what binds the Wolfes together in the first place and whether the experiences of his own immediate family subvert the connections he feels with his ancestors. A biographical dictionary and fifty pages of family trees complete this impressive volume.

Unknown Binding

About the author

An Iowa native and graduate of the University of Iowa, Brendan Wolfe is the author of Finding Bix: The Life and Afterlife of a Jazz Legend , about the early jazz musician Bix Beiderbecke. His work has appeared in The Morning News , the Colorado Review, and VQR. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.