Amy Rowland

A transcriptionist for a Manhattan newspaper searches for the truth when she learns that a woman she met on the bus a few days prior supposedly committed suicide by jumping into a lion's den at the zoo.

The Transcriptionist

Inside the Wolf

This haunting and timely novel explores the true costs of tradition, secrets, and Southern mythmaking through the lens of an accidental shooting that reverberates across generations. Rachel Ruskin never intended to return to her family's tobacco farm in Shiloh, North Carolina. But when her academic career studying Southern folklore in New York City flames out, she has no choice. Back home, her parents killed in a car accident, her beloved brother Garland dead by suicide, she is left alone, haunted by the memories of the accidental gun death of her childhood best friend; and haunted by the ghosts of secrecy, of tainted soil, of wolves and witches and untold stories. When another child in the community is accidentally killed by a gun, however, she can no longer keep her own memories at a distance, her family secrets buried. How can the people of Shiloh carry on—with their cherished love of hunting and guns, and with the loss of more children at the same time? Drawn back into the rhythms of Shiloh and in search of family and a place to belong, Rachel must acknowledge the culture she comes from, the people and the traditions she grew up with, and at the same time also question those traditions and the perniciousness of guns. Rich with the rhythms of rural life and the landscape of the South, Inside the Wolf is a fierce, lyrical, and gorgeously redemptive novel about the myths of masculinity, guns, violence—and ultimately, the American past.

“Haunting and provocative . . . Rowland’s writing is compelling and masterful.” —Delia Ephron, author of The Lion Is In Once, there were many transcriptionists at the Record, a behemoth New York City newspaper, but new technology has put most of them out of work. So now Lena, the last transcriptionist, sits alone in a room--a human conduit, silently turning reporters’ recorded stories into print--until the day she encounters a story so shocking that it shatters the reverie that has become her life. This exquisite novel, written by an author who spent more than a decade as a transcriptionist at the New York Times, asks probing questions about journalism and ethics, about the decline of the newspaper and the failure of language. It is also the story of a woman’s effort to establish her place in an increasingly alien and alienating world. “The Transcriptionist is suffused with prescient insight into journalism, ethics, and alienation . . . A thought provoking, original work.” —New York Journal of Books “Rowland seems that rare thing, the naturally gifted novelist . . . [She] deftly maps a very specific kind of urban loneliness, the inner ache of the intelligent, damaged soul who prefers the company of ideas and words to that of people . . . That urge--to make words holy--is at the heart of this novel’s strange, sad beauty.” —The Washington Post “The Transcriptionist holds many pleasures . . . [and] can be read through many lenses . . . Rowland plays with the notions of truth and reliability . . . Sharp and affecting.” —The New York Times Book Review “A strange, mesmerizing novel . . . about the decline of newspapers and the subsequent loss of humanity—and yes, these are related.” —Booklist, starred review “Ambitious and fascinating . . . Disturbing and powerful.” —Library Journal “Entering the city Rowland creates, with its tightly strung dialogue and soulful, lonely citizens, is a memorable experience.” —The Boston Globe “Unforgettable. Written with such delight, compassion, and humanity it’s newsworthy.”—Alex Gilvarry, author of From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant

Amy Rowland

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