Adam Foulds Books

From the author of the Man Booker shortlisted The Quickening MazeIn the Wolf's Mouth follows the lives of four very different men, all of them navigating the chaos and horror brought about by the Second World War.

Centres on the first incarceration of the great nature poet John Clare. After years struggling with alcohol, critical neglect and depression, Clare finds himself in High Beach Private Asylum - an institution run on reformist principles which would later become known as occupational therapy. At the same time another poet, the young Alfred Tennyson, moves nearby and becomes entangled in the life and catastrophic schemes of the asylum's owner, the peculiar, charismatic Dr Matthew Allen. For John Clare, a man who had grown up steeped in the freedoms and exhilarations of nature, who thought 'the edge of the world was a day's walk away', a locked door is a kind of death.

Henry Banks, a brilliant but narcissistic young actor, is prepared to go to any length for a role, to capitalise on his successes in television drama by securing the lead in the latest film by a celebrated Spanish director. He is on the brink of the next step -- very close to achieving intellectual credibility and some serious celebrity. However, Henry has -- unwittingly -- become an important part of the life of recently-divorced Kristin: someone who is also on the brink. Sitting in her beautiful, empty Philadelphia home, Kristin is obsessed with the handsome English actor and convinced they are destined to be together. She resolves to fly to London and bring their relationship to fruition.

Ten year-old Saul Dawson-Smith has an extremely impressive memory, so much so that he can remember every conversation he's ever had. Howard McNamee is a lonely, poorly educated and overweight twenty-eight year old. Struggling to pay his rent with a succession of menial jobs, he finds himself thrust into an unlikely friendship with Saul when he is taken under the wing of his parents. While Howard is having to cope with the demands of London and accidentally acquiring himself a Russian internet fiancee, Saul is focussed on the World Memory Championships, an event he has been training for his whole life. With Howard realising he has to save his friend from a lifetime of unbearable expectations, the pair embark on an extraordinary road trip and voyage of dicovery as they attempt to escape their lives.