SAM THOMPSON | AUTHOR INTERVIEW
With Wolfstongue, Man Booker Prize nominee Sam Thompson has taken on the new challenge of middle-grade fiction writing after his experiences with his son’s speech difficulties left him inspired to write something profound for those who suffer the same toil.
Wolfstongue, illustrated beautifully by Anna Tromop, is a lyrical fable following the journey of young Silas, struggling to find his voice in not only the scary world of school (and its bullies), but in a realm of animals that can speak and, in some cases, wreak havoc. Foxes with a passion to humanise their animal-existence are hellbent on making wolves their slaves. But the wolves are done with brutality and mistreatment, fleeing in search of a peaceful life. Now, Isengrim and Hersent have a litter of wolf cubs that they’ll protect at all costs, even if it means showing the human boy Silas the secrets of their world.
So, if the novel’s author Sam Thomspon were to encounter a talking wolf in his path today, like his protagonist, what would his initial reaction be?
“After adjusting my sense of reality a bit, I’d be very curious to hear what the wolf had to say – but I think I’d also feel shy,” he says. “It’s easy to feel comfortable with animals precisely because they can’t talk. If we met a talking wolf then all the challenges of understanding one another would begin.
“Wittgenstein said that ‘if a lion could speak, we could not understand him’ – in other words, our perspective on the world is so different from other animals’, we could never tell a story that had meaning for both. I hadn’t made the link until this conversation, but I suppose Wolfstongue wants to push against Wittgenstein and tell a story in the imaginary space where animals might be able to speak to us from inside their silence…”
A lack of speech can be very isolating. The world around Silas is wild and yet he is unable to communicate as well as he’d like to. The wolves, however, give the struggling young boy a sense of comfort: that it’s okay to not be okay, essentially. Were there any other messages that Thompson was trying to relay?
“I’m glad you got that sense from the wolves!” he approves. “They did feel to me like spirit animals for Silas, giving him a different way of understanding what it means to be silent or not to be able to communicate. I don’t like to think of stories as carrying messages, but I’d hope that the book works like a kind of myth, offering its reader a way of thinking about the world that might be useful.
“If so, it’s a myth about how human language creates the world, about how there is a non-human world beyond our language, and about how children now growing up will have to find ways of speaking on behalf of that silent world.”
How does writing for adults compare to writing for children in Thompson’s experience?
“Whoever you’re writing for, you have to start by writing for yourself, trying to make the sentences ring true in your own ears,” he explains. “One thing I did notice with Wolfstongue was that I was writing less for my present-day self and more for myself as a child – maybe that’s the extra magic of writing for children, the way it closes that gap in time!”
Those who enjoy Wolfstongue will be pleased to hear there’s a sequel on the cards. “I’ve never written a sequel to anything before,” Thompson admits, “but after finishing the book I realised I’d only begun to work out what it was about, so it’s exciting to dig deeper!”
Children – and adults! – everywhere will certainly find comfort and magic within Wolfstongue’s pages, and undoubtedly in any stories yet to come…
Wolfstongue is published by Little Island. Price: £8.99. Info: here
words KARLA BRADING