Ordinary Wolves: A Novel

Ordinary Wolves follows Cutuk Hawcley, a young man born and raised in the Arctic who has spent his life hunting, fishing, and trading to survive in extreme conditions—enduring inhuman cold, sharing rancid salmon with sled dogs, and sheltering in sod igloos during blizzards. Though he idolizes the indigenous hunters who taught him survival skills, he faces rejection in the nearby Inupiaq village, where native children mock and attack him for being white. When Cutuk leaves for the city as a young man, he confronts two incompatible realities: the wild world he knows and consumer culture. This coming-of-age story depicts a young man isolated by his past who must choose between two worlds, both of which seem to reject him.