Well I was always going to love this, being a book about wild animals and a man who struggles to find a balance between a life with them and a life with humans. There is no instinctive driver I can relate to more.

Whilst the leading character, Luke Warren himself is 'absent' (in a coma after an accident), we hear his voice throughout the novel, and come to understand that the man who seemed to be the underlying cause of all that was broken in this family, is perhaps the one who has been teaching them how to actually function as a family all along. Packed with the usual twists, and the heart-rending consequences of unspoken truths and buried secrets.

I love that Picoult has used fiction to share so much about the behaviours of wild animals and more importantly, their motivations - which is would seem are rather different to ours. In my second year of a Bachelor of Applied Science in Animal Welfare, it was a special pleasure to be able to read a novel while I should be studying, and assauge my guilt because it was so topic related!

I was deeply moved by the emotions that raged through these family members, and the analogy that ran through it all - of our need to learn to live like a wolf pack to thrive as a family. We would do well to learn much more from our fellow earthlings - who never act in spite, never take more than they need, share with every member of their pack, are not driven by ego, have respect and reverence for other packs, and who understand the intrinsic value of every player in their team.

My greatest struggle in studying animal behaviour, is the underlying principle that humans have evolved to something 'grander'. I hope one day, when humans adopt similar values to those in the animal kingdom, we will see evidence that this is truly the case.