Overall rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐
Narrator rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐
“Even the best bread can turn moldy.”
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In The Running Wolf, we are immersed in the life of a German smithy who has relocated with his family to England in the late 1600s. While the story follows the ins and outs of their lives it illuminates the truth of life as an immigrant, as a skilled worker operating outside of a guild, the politics of England, religious intolerance and the general harshness of life in that era. The story flips back and forth between an imprisoned smuggler in the run up to the Jacobite uprising and the life of the smithy, Hermann (love that character’s name obviously).
I really loved the intricate detail of Hermann’s life. We see the importance of their nationality in their lives, the respect and care for elders, the importance of gender roles and the job of a smithy in general. I liked that there were scenes in both England and Germany so we saw life in both places. There were quite a few scenes of action that I felt were heart pounding but you should expect for the most part, a slower paced story with small snippets of life changing action.
This is really fabulous historical fiction with a slice of life that I haven’t read in other novels of this type. We really see how the rigors of life challenges even the best people and the choices they are forced to make under duress.
Thanks to Love Book Tours and Helen Steadman for a gifted copy of this audiobook. All opinions above are my own.
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