Tell the Wolves I'm Home

Tell the Wolves I’m Home is the 2012 debut novel of author Carol Rifka Brunt. In it, 14-year-old narrator June Elbus wrestles with her grief over the death of her uncle Finn Weiss, who died of AIDS. Set in 1987 New York at the height of the AIDS crisis, the novel confronts the stigmas surrounding the disease through June’s parents and sister, who blame Finn’s long-term partner, Toby Aldshaw, for transmitting AIDS to Finn. As June attempts to keep Finn’s memory alive, she ventures into forbidden territory by getting to know Toby. June also loses her friendship with her older sister, Greta, as the novel explores the tension that results when jealousy severs ties that were once strong.

Brunt was born in Queens, New York, and now resides in Devon, England. She has indicated that her initial inspiration for the novel came from the image of a dying man painting a final work (“An Interview With Carol Rifka Brunt.” BookBrowse). A New York Times bestseller, Tell the Wolves I’m Home also received the American Library Association’s Alex Award, which is awarded to adult books that appeal to teenage readers.

This guide refers to the 2013 paperback edition by Dial Press.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain references to anti-gay bias, the stigmatization of HIV/AIDS, and death.

Plot Summary

Fourteen-year-old June Elbus and her 16-year-old sister, Greta, pose for a portrait for their uncle—painter Finn Weiss—in his Manhattan apartment in December 1986. Finn dies of AIDS on February 5, 1987. As Finn’s goddaughter, June has a close relationship with Finn, who has passed along his love of medieval art and culture to her. Her parents, however—especially June’s mother, Danielle—encourage June to move through her grief for Finn quickly, feeling shame due to the cause of his death and the stigma surrounding AIDS. The family receives the portrait—titled Tell the Wolves I’m Home—shortly after Finn’s funeral. After the New York Times publishes an article about the painting, indicating its great monetary value, June’s mother secures the painting in a bank vault, giving Greta and June each a key so that they may visit the painting whenever they wish.

At the funeral, June learns of Finn’s boyfriend, an English man named Toby Aldshaw, whom she and Greta are commanded to stay away from. Toby is not allowed to attend the funeral, but in the days that follow, he secretly contacts June, hoping she might be willing to see him so that they can share memories of Finn. June’s parents, who are accountants, are consumed with tax season, and Greta is caught up in rehearsals for South Pacific, in which she plays the lead. Alone, June spends her time walking in the woods behind their school, pretending she has been transported to the Middle Ages.

June decides to meet Toby. Though she is wary of him, he promises to share Finn’s possessions if she makes future visits to his and Finn’s apartment. As winter becomes spring, June makes several secret trips into the city, each time obtaining a memento of Finn. One item, a book about medievalism called The Book of Days, contains a note from Finn in which he asks June to take care of Toby, insisting that Toby has no one else. June vows to herself to do so. At the same time, Greta begins inviting June to after-rehearsal parties with the theater students. June attends unwillingly and, on a few occasions, talks with a lighting student named Ben. Greta often ends up drunk and passed out under a tree that June considers “her” tree, and she becomes nostalgic for the friendship she and June once had. During their time together at home, however, Greta is hostile, and June also longs for their past relationship.

June visits the painting at the bank vault and discovers that Greta has painted a skull onto her own hand in the painting. On her next visit, June adds gold paint to the hair of the two figures. As spring unfolds, the modifying of the portrait becomes June’s and Greta’s secret means of communication, though neither mentions it to the other. June and Toby grow closer, and June comes up with what she feels is a brilliant plan to make Toby (who is also dying of AIDS) happy again—she will travel with him back to his hometown in England. She steals her passport from her parents and tells Toby of her plan, but he dismisses it. As tax season draws to a close, June worries that she is running out of unsupervised time, and her mission becomes urgent.

Another article about the painting appears in Newsweek magazine; June’s mother informs the family that she has agreed to allow its author to see the painting. On the morning of the opening of Greta’s musical, Danielle takes June to the bank to retrieve the painting. When she and June’s father discover what has happened to the painting, they punish June, forbidding her to go to the cast party after that night’s performance. That night, June attends the musical with her parents and can tell that Greta is drunk, intentionally hoping to sabotage her own performance to get out of performing Annie on Broadway that summer. June fears that Greta will do something drastic in the woods that night and tries to get a message to her but cannot.

As a thunderstorm ensues, June begins to panic. Fearing that Greta is alone and drunk in the woods, June phones Toby, asking him to retrieve Greta. The plan goes wrong when Toby is taken in by the police after neighbors were alerted by Greta’s screams in the woods. Police inform the family that Toby’s visa has expired. Over the next few days, June attempts to reach Toby by phone, but no one answers. She does, however, have a heart-to-heart talk with Greta, who admits to being jealous, first of Finn and then of Toby.

When June finally discovers that Toby is in a hospital, dying, she convinces Greta to go with her to see him. June ends up bringing Toby to their home, where he ultimately passes away. Before this, their mother forgives Toby for Finn’s death and asks for forgiveness in return.