Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf

Satchel O’Rye and Chelsea Piper are oddballs, marooned in an Australian backwater; the world is passing them by.

When Satchel tells Chelsea about a creature he’s seen on the mountain, she becomes convinced it is the last-ever Tasmanian wolf and that finding it will, somehow, save them both.

When he is forced to decide whether to stay and support his eccentric parents or grasp the opportunity of a new life elsewhere, Satchel’s own survival becomes inextricably intertwined with that of the wolf.

Hartnett’s precise, graceful writing explores the tantalising potential of suspended lives. A hugely-absorbing book that repays slow reading, in which even small events are momentous, and where Satchel, like the wolf, seeks the path to discovering 'just the way he needed to be'.