Wolf
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- €16.99
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- €16.99
Publisher Description
After a tragic accident leaves his family bereft, a young boy called Hugo finds his world turned upside down. His new home comes with new neighbours, among them (according to the boy next door) a dangerous recluse who eats children: the Wolfman.
Desperate to return to happier days, Hugo draws up plans for a time machine. But only the Wolfman has the parts that Hugo needs to complete his contraption, and that will mean entering his sinister neighbour’s house…
Beautifully illustrated in pencil, Wolf is a captivating and poignant exploration of family, grief and that blend of the everyday and the fantastical that is childhood.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Employing supernatural elements to represent a child's grieving process, Ball's viscerally moving graphic novel of parental loss unfolds like a haunting dream. Ball (The Inflatable Woman) depicts 1970s working-class England through the viewpoint of Hugo, the youngest of three, who clings to the memory of their father, who died in a freak accident. While Hugo's teenage brother Eric glowers and Mum tries to keep the family afloat, Hugo sets out to build a time machine so he can go back and spend time with his father. This scheme leads him to a sickly, reclusive neighbor known in local kid lore as "the Wolfman." The lonely stranger who returns a damaged nuclear family to itself is a weary archetype, but Ball's execution is excellent. Her wooly drawings of dark holes, shadow creatures, and children who straddle the line between cute and creepy evoke the sad, scary, and wondrous parts of childhood fantasy. The story drives home the irrevocable absence of death and the resurrection fantasies that children of any age harbor in grief. The rules of Ball's universe aren't always abundantly clear, but that's the point. This affecting work reminds readers that in memory, anything is possible and everyone is immortal.
