Throw Me to the Wolves

Throw Me to the Wolves is, on the face of it, a made-for-TV procedural police drama… Scratch the surface, however, and all of Britain’s restless undercurrents are churning away… this is literary fiction as it should be: in stylish, surprising, lyrical sentences we are forced to confront the hidden power structures, public and private, that control our everyday lives. It’s reminiscent of Edward St Aubyn, not only in its pillorying of the elite, but the pleasure McGuinness takes in having his characters say clever things. It’s also a proper page-turner. – Melissa Katsoulis * The Times *
This is a writer worth knowing… [McGuinness] combines elegant prose with caustic commentary on romance, education and crime… most people can write for a lifetime and not produce so perfect a sentence. – Patrick Anderson * Washington Post *
Blisteringly effective, written with an almost hallucinogenic clarity… Throw Me to the Wolves is intensely powerful. – Justine Jordon * Guardian *
An extraordinary writer of great compassion, McGuinness combines a mesmerising crime novel with a forensic look at the brutalising mechanisms of the British Public School system. Stunning. – Denise Mina
An absorbing novel… on virtually every page, there are perfectly judged descriptions that reveal something about the world. * Financial Times *
This second novel from Man Booker-longlisted McGuinness is a compassionate, funny and ultimately moving indictment of the gutter press, social media and boarding schools. – Phil Baker * Sunday Times *
Throw Me to the Wolves could be described as a crime novel or as a State of the Nation novel. It fits into both those categories, but it offers much more than such convenient labels would suggest. It’s a book seriously concerned with, and about, people who function on the fringe of society. Patrick McGuinness is an observant and reflective storyteller of a special kind. – Paul Bailey
A big, serious, elegantly written, darkly entertaining study of what school does to us, and how life afterwards can turn into a nightmare. McGuinness is a novelist of the old school, where the best and most lasting lessons were taught. – John Banville
Intelligent and troubling… [Throw Me To The Wolves] invites reflection about the state of morality today, about the lust for witch-hunts and the zeal to punish. – Allan Massie * Scotsman *
Brilliant. * Strong Words *

Patrick McGuinness, born in Tunisia in 1968, is the author of the novel, The Last Hundred Days, which was longlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the 2011 Costa First Novel Award and won the 2012 Wales Book of the Year Award. His other books include two collections of poems, The Canals of Mars (2004), and Jilted City (2010), and Other People’s Countries (2015), which won the Duff Cooper Prize and was the Wales Book of the Year. He is a Fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford, where he lectures in French.

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