Talking to the wolf

Love, first periods, last periods, bullying mothers, disappeared fathers, crazy sisters, children unborn, found, or gone, parents dying too fast or too slow, this apartment, that apartment, an eyebrow raised across a crowded room.

Four women are steeling themselves for their 35th high school reunion dinner. Lifelong friends, they have seen each other through it all. They are a failed rock star, an awarded scientist, a work-obsessed misanthrope -- and one of them is a deeply grieved ghost, whose untimely death following a friend breakup has ruptured the once-solid quartet. Set in the course of one day running up to the reunion as a surprise snowstorm falls over New York City, and moving amongst the four perspectives, TALKING TO THE WOLF is like a Meg Wolitzer novel shot by filmmaker Nicole Holofcener and blessed by Virginia Woolf. (It pole-vaults over the Bechdel Test.)

BUZZ

Talking to the Wolf is evocative, rich, and simply bursting with rage and love. A gorgeous novel about the kinds of lifelong friendships that are both the wound and the salve, the raging storm and the hush of dawn."

--Lauren Groff, author of Brawler and The Vaster Wilds

Rebecca Chace’s Talking to the Wolf is so richly peopled I feel like I could put a letter in the mail to any of its characters. Each of them is so full of singular life, so delightfully, painfully earnest in their messy trying. This is a book about friendship, family, love, memory, and the metamorphic, often corrosive, effect of time on each. As Chace’s characters move into shaky reunion, their pasts and presents tangle and fray, forcing them to finally put into words what has for too long remained unspoken. After all, as one of them concludes, “There might be a song in it.”
— Kaveh Akbar, author of Martyr!

“This tale of four friends (one a ghost) takes us across thirty-five years of tumultuous attachment. How alive these women are—including the dead one—and how forever bonded, even with their separate versions of the truth. A terrific book.”
— Joan Silber, author of Secrets of Happiness

Talking to the Wolf is a stunning, intricate portrayal of close female bonds forged in adolescence. It’s a story about how our ideas of success change over time, and the mysterious ways that our deepest friendships both hold us and release us. Rebecca Chace has written an intimate, luminous, and deeply absorbing novel, one that I didn’t want to end.
—Rene Steinke, novelist and National Book Award finalist

BOOK CLUB QUESTIONS

I love book clubs! I am in a book club, of course, and I also love to visit book groups. I can schedule a visit either in person or on Zoom.

Reach out to me directly via email: rebeccachaceauthor@gmail.com and we will figure it out!

Here are some questions that you are welcome to use as a starting point for your discussion:

This novel focuses on four different women, long-term friends who are on their way to their 35th high school reunion. Who is your favorite character? Why?

The book takes place over 24-hours during an unexpected blizzard in New York City. How does the weather impact the “emotional weather” of the book and each of the characters?

Let’s talk about structure: Each of these characters (even the ghost) are making their way through the city to their 35th high school reunion dinner. The dinner, whether dreaded or anticipated (or both) is the climactic scene in the book. How did you feel that this structure impacted the forward momentum of the book?

The novel is narrated by four different characters (including the ghost). Why do you think the author chose to use these different voices to tell this story? Did it work for you? Was it confusing?

These four friends are grieving both a friend breakup and an untimely death. Have you ever had a friend breakup? Do you still think about it? Do you want to talk about it?

song recordings for Val’s hit single with her band The Joypoppers:

(Val is character in Talking to the Wolf)