Lone Wolf A Novel Read online

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“Picoult, a master of the domestic landscape.”— People

A life hanging in the balance . . . a family torn apart. The #1 internationally bestselling author Jodi Picoult tells an unforgettable story about family secrets, love, and letting go.

In the wild, when a wolf knows its time is over, when it knows it is of no more use to its pack, it may sometimes choose to slip away. Dying apart from its family, it stays proud and true to its nature. Humans aren’t so lucky.

Luke Warren has spent his life researching wolves. He has written about them, studied their habits intensively, and even lived with them for extended periods of time. In many ways, Luke understands wolf dynamics better than those of his own family. His wife, Georgie, has left him, finally giving up on their lonely marriage. His son, Edward, twenty-four, fled six years ago, leaving behind a shattered relationship with his father. Edward understands that some things cannot be fixed, though memories of his domineering father still inflict pain. Then comes a frantic phone call: Luke has been gravely injured in a car accident with Edward’s younger sister, Cara.

Suddenly everything changes: Edward must return home to face the father he walked out on at age eighteen. He and Cara have to decide their father’s fate together. Though there’s no easy answer, questions abound: What secrets have Edward and his sister kept from each other? What hidden motives inform their need to let their father die . . . or to try to keep him alive? What would Luke himself want? How can any family member make such a decision in the face of guilt, pain, or both? And most importantly, to what extent have they all forgotten what a wolf never forgets: that each member of a pack needs the others, and that sometimes survival means sacrifice?

Another tour de force by Picoult, Lone Wolf brilliantly describes the nature of a family: the love, protection, and strength it can offer—and the price we might have to pay for those gifts. What happens when the hope that should sustain a family is the very thing tearing it apart?

“Picoult writes with unassuming brilliance.”

—Stephen King

“Picoult breathes humanity into somber issues and delivers unexpected healing and hope.”

—The Providence Journal

JODI PICOULT is the author of nineteen novels, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers Sing You Home, House Rules, Handle with Care, Change of Heart, Nineteen Minutes, and My Sister’s Keeper. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children. Visit her website at www.jodipicoult.com.

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JACKET PHOTOGRAPH © MARK OWEN/ARCANGEL IMAGES

AUTHOR PHOTOGRAPH BY ADAM BOUSKA

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. COPYRIGHT © 2012 SIMON & SCHUSTER

ALSO BY JODI PICOULT

Sing You Home

House Rules

Handle with Care

Change of Heart

Nineteen Minutes

The Tenth Circle

Vanishing Acts

My Sister’s Keeper

Second Glance

Perfect Match

Salem Falls

Plain Truth

Keeping Faith

The Pact

Mercy

Picture Perfect

Harvesting the Heart

Songs of the Humpback Whale

AND FOR THE STAGE

Over the Moon: An Original Musical for Teens

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2012 by Jodi Picoult

The lines from THE BLIND ASSASSIN by Margaret Atwood, copyright © 2000 by O. W. Toad, Ltd. Used by permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Emily Bestler Books/Atria Books hardcover edition February 2012

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Designed by Jaime Putorti

Illustrations by John Norton

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Picoult, Jodi, 1966–

Lone wolf : a novel / by Jodi Picoult. — 1st Atria Books hardcover ed.

p. cm.

1. Accident victims—Fiction. 2. Terminal care—Decision making—Fiction.

3. Parent and adult child—Fiction. 4. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3566.I372L66 2012

813'.54—dc23

2011039017

ISBN 978-1-4391-0274-9

ISBN 978-1-4391-4969-0 (ebook)

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Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PROLOGUE

LUKE

PART ONE

CARA

LUKE

GEORGIE

LUKE

EDWARD

LUKE

CARA

LUKE

EDWARD

LUKE

GEORGIE

EDWARD

EDWARD

LUKE

CARA

LUKE

GEORGIE

LUKE

EDWARD

LUKE

CARA

LUKE

EDWARD

PART TWO

CARA

LUKE

GEORGIE

LUKE

EDWARD

LUKE

CARA

LUKE

EDWARD

LUKE

CARA

LUKE

JOE

LUKE

GEORGIE

LUKE

LUKE

CARA

LUKE

JOE

LUKE

EDWARD

LUKE

GEORGIE

LUKE

CARA

LUKE

JOE

LUKE

CARA

LUKE

EDWARD

LUKE

HELEN

LUKE

CARA

LUKE

EDWARD

LUKE

CARA

LUKE

EPILOGUE

BARNEY

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AUTHOR’S NOTE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I’m fortunate to be surrounded by people who make me look much smarter than I am, all of whom contributed to the research for this book. In the medical f

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