Mira lay deep inside her den, nuzzling her newborn pups. As the weeks pass, the unusual appearance of two of her offspring grows more pronounced and with that, the pack’s behaviour changes. A strangeness hangs in the air, compounding the onlookers’ superstitions. As fear turns to aggression, Joel, the alpha male, is forced to assert his dominance and defend his family… Edmund Rainer is on … is on vacation with his dad in the forest, when he discovers the little body of a wolf pup. Carrying him back to the cabin, Edmund rescues the pup, fascinated with his beautiful ears. A friendship blossoms between the two, but when a devastating storm propels them on an extraordinary journey, they must use their instincts to survive the hidden dangers lurking in the forest.
Unwittingly, Edmund becomes embroiled in the treachery revolving around the young pup and his life becomes increasingly under threat as he tries to protect GoldenEars from harm.
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Wolves are one of my favorite animals, so it’s not surprising that this book sucked me into a whirlpool of emotions in which it kept me until the very end.
GoldenEars is one of the most emotional, passionate, and educational animal fiction books I have read in years, even decades. Wonderfully written, this debut novel has ranked Jane H Wood among the authors who have a voice, passion to inflame others, and dedication and commitment to her beliefs.
GoldenEars is a wild, raw, savage, cold, and brutal story. But it is also tender, caring, beautiful, dreamy, warm, moving, fervent, and heartwarming. The flow of my tears I couldn’t stop is the best proof of that. Those were not sad or happy tears. Well, maybe a little. Those were tears because your heart was full and your whole being trembled from the strength of the written word. Tears that connected you with the story, its protagonists, nature.
If I were a wolf, I would howl instead of cry. Maybe I will practice my howling one day alone in the wild, away from the noise of this world. What I can do now, though, is give a loud shout-out (or howl) to everyone involved in wolf protection, either through the wolf protection programs or by spreading the word or writing a novel, like Jane did.
It is crucial to understand that wolves belong to our world. They are here with their role in the natural order of things, with their right to exist and live. Conflicts between wolves and humans happen because we invaded their habitats and took their wilderness for ourselves to make it economically valuable, destroying it. We (humans) hunt wolves not because they are dangerous but because of profit. We are the ones who cornered them, banished them, pushed them to the verge of extermination. To protect these magnificent animals, please support your local wildlife organizations not run by hunters but those who carry animal protection and rights in their hearts.
Read and review this book and spread the word about it. Each new person who better understands wolves raises the chances of their survival. Is this enough of recommendation for you?
I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Jane H. Wood, and The Book Guild. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. I have added this British author, Jane H. Wood, to my favorite authors, and I am pleased to recommend her to friends and family. She writes a smooth story with a great deal of heart.
It is the breaking of the spring of 1972 in the southern wilderness of Canada’s Northwest Territories. We are established in the mindset of a pair of grey wolves, the female Mira and her mate Joel, awaiting the birth of their new litter of pups, males Tuke, Glyth, runt Kegg, and daughter Skeena. Both Glyth and Kegg has unusual ears – ears that tilt and droop toward their eyes with golden hairs that extend past the points of those ears. The wolf family goes through life-threatening weather, illegal hunters, attacks by their own wolf pack who expel Joel and Mira when they refuse to allow the golden eared boys to be killed for their differences, which the wolf pack decides is the cause of the failure of the spring return of their normal hooved prey. When the family is attacked, Glyth is injured by a bite that involves his hip joint. Homeless and without allies, the family find themselves in extreme danger and only able to move slowly with the youngsters and crippled Glyth.
Eventually, after many trials and tribulations, we will see this tale through the eyes of Edmund Rainer, a rather frail 15-year-old boy who develops an extraordinary relationship with Kegg, whom he calls GoldenEars due to the unusual feathery golden hairs in the cub’s ear tips. Ed saves 6-month-old Kegg from drowning with CPR when he is separated from his wolf family by raging floodwaters after a heavy spring rain. Edmund is not able to resuscitate the larger pup Glyth, washed up on the same curve in the river, but he does take him from the river’s edge and hides the body from predators, leaving his scent on poor Glyth, before he and GoldenEars return to the wilderness cabin being rented by Edmund’s Dad Sam and family friend Bert. It takes the canid family several days to track down Edmund and Kegg, who is secretly living in the tool shed while Sam and Bert are home and running wild with Edmund while the men are out fishing. The wolf family and the Rainers go through life-threatening weather, Edmund is injured by stepping into a bear trap and then is accidentally shot twice by forest rangers mistaking him for the illegal hunters who are killing the wolves who normally range in that territory. When it’s time to return home from the hospital where Edmund was treated for weeks, the Rainer family goes through the Huxforest Wildlife Reserve to check on GoldenEars and Glyth who were sent there for Veteraniran care which entailed surgery for Glyth.
Edmund makes up his mind to become a forest ranger much to his over-protective mother’s despair. The family makes a couple of trips over to check on the wolf pups. Eventually, Kegg is located yet again by his wolf family and ‘rescued’ with the help of Edmund. Kegg’s relationship with Edmund remains close and their adventures are interesting and heartwarming. The almost instinctive fear and loathing directed at the wolf species by humankind is presented in an abstract way but there is still a bit of pain along the way. An excellent book for reading aloud to youngsters. And it warmed my old heart, as well.
This book was lost for a year in an old Kindle account – so sorry to be so slow in reading and reviewing.