A panoramic epic, a magnificent piece of storytelling, an unforgettable debut novel

As winter tightens its grip on the isolated settlement of Canada’s Dove River in 1867, a man is brutally murdered and a 17-year-old boy disappears. Tracks leaving the dead man’s cabin head north toward the forest and the tundra beyond.

In the wake of such violence, people are drawn to the township—journalists, Hudson Bay Company men, trappers, traders—but do they want to solve the crime or exploit it? One-by-one the assembled searchers set out from Dove River, pursuing the tracks across a desolate landscape home only to wild animals, madmen, and fugitives, variously seeking a murderer, a son, two missing sisters, a forgotten Native culture, and a fortune in stolen furs.

In an astonishingly assured debut, Stef Penney weaves adventure, suspense, revelation, and humour into a gripping historical tale, an exhilarating thriller, a keen murder mystery, and ultimately, with the sheer scope and quality of her storytelling, one of the best books of the year.

“I now believe in reincarnation. Stef Penney was clearly, undeniably, once a settler in the harsh pre-Cambrian Shield that runs across this country, rather appropriately, like a spine. She has captured the terror, the loneliness, the hope and even the way winter light falls on the edge of the lake. The Tenderness of Wolves is an unnerving book, brilliantly executed, and could only have been written by someone who was actually there, taking careful notes.”
—Roy MacGregor, author of A Life in the Bush and The Weekender

“The Tenderness of Wolves is a brilliant novel about people living on the fringes, both literally and figuratively. Penney has artfully blended warmth and poetic austerity. I loved it."
—Paul Quarrington, author of Galveston and Whale Music

"Stef Penney's debut is written with wicked clarity and beauty. Part mystery, part historical drama,The Tenderness of Wolves is a tale as crisp and driven as Georgian Bay snow. One of the most assured and memorable debuts I've had the fortune to read."
—Joseph Boyden, author of Three Day Road

“Tender is Ms. Penney's talent, carrying a village of characters--and ultimately the reader—into mystery, history, and the wilderness of being human. A fine and compelling book.”
—Seth Kantner, author of Ordinary Wolves

“A richly detailed mystery that brings the isolation of the Canadian North vividly to life … Stef Penney is clearly a talented writer…”
— Quill & Quire

"...mines her setting and period for all it’s got and then some, injecting plenty of invented intrigue and Da Vinci Code-like revelations...The result is an entertaining, well-constructed mystery that jazzes up the "real" history in a way that’s more Ron Howard than Pierre Berton. It’s the kind of sexy, suspenseful, densely plotted storytelling traditional associated with neither Scots nor Canucks..."
"...a first-rate gripper...
"...it is a novel with far greater ambitions than your average thriller, combining as it does the themes of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness with Atwood’s Survival, and lashing them to a story that morphs Ian Rankin..."
—Globe and Mail

View the story regarding the Costa Award, from the BBC website

February 7, 2007—Penguin Group (Canada) is proud to announce that Stef Penney has just been awarded the 2006 Costa Book of the Year Award for her debut novel: The Tenderness of Wolves. The award, which was announced last night in London, England, recognizes an outstanding book by a writer living in the United Kingdom and Ireland and comes with a cash prize of £25,000. Penney was also awarded Costa's 2006 First Novel Prize in a ceremony in January, 2007.

The Tenderness of Wolves, which was published in Canada in September 2006 under Penguin's Viking Canada imprint, is a tense thriller set in the wilderness of Canada in 1867. According to the Costa judges, “The Tenderness of Wolves stood out from a very strong shortlist. We felt enveloped by the snowy landscape and gripped by the beautiful writing and effortless story-telling. It is a story of love, suspense and beauty. We couldn't put it down.”

Penney, never having visited Canada, did all of her research on nineteenth century Canada at the British Library. Her portrayal of the land and its people was so convincingly authentic that best-selling Canadian author and Globe and mail columnist Roy MacGregor wrote: “I now believe in reincarnation. Stef Penney was clearly once a settler in the harsh pre-Cambrian Shield that runs across this country. The Tenderness of Wolves is an unnerving book, brilliantly executed, and could only have been written by someone who was actually there, taking careful notes.”

Stef Penney currently lives and writes in East London, England.

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For further information, please contact:

Stephen Myers, Publicist
Penguin Group (Canada)
416 928 2420
Stephen.Myers@ca.penguingroup.com