“Talking to the Wolf” by Rebecca Chace Book Release
March 17th, 2026 — Rebecca Chace‘s (CRF 2021) new novel Talking to the Wolf (Red Hen Press) hits bookshelves on May 19th! “The novel has many little Civitella moments embedded in it,” Rebecca told Civitella in an email.
Her book tour will kick off on May 18th, at Books Are Magic (Smith Street) in Brooklyn, at 7:00 PM, where Rebecca will be in conversation with novelist and National Book Award Finalist, Rene Steinke. On Thursday, May 21st at 7 PM, Rebecca will read with acclaimed poet and prison reform activist, Reginald Dwayne Betts (CRF 2023) at Sleeping Giant Reading Series in Hamden, Connecticut. On Monday, June 8th at 7 PM, she will be back in Brooklyn, reading at Franklin Park’s Reading Series in Crown Heights. Check Rebecca’s website for additional events in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California, and elsewhere.
About the Book
A failed rockstar, an awarded scientist, a work-obsessed misanthrope, and a ghost, whose untimely death ruptured the once-solid quartet, steel themselves for their thirty-fifth high school reunion dinner. Set during a surprise snowstorm in New York City the day of the reunion, Talking to the Wolf is a lyrical exploration of female friendship, friend breakups, and reconciliations across decades.
Rebecca explained, “The novel is all about long-term friendships and the intensity—and complexity— of these bonds. The book takes place in a 24-hour snowstorm in New York City as four women—one a much grieved ghost—make their way to their 35th high school reunion.”
The book is already receiving advance praise from critics. Booklist describes it as “Brilliant, heartbreaking, and hopeful; a deeply empathetic novel with friendship at its core.”
Fellow Civitellians have also praised the novel.
“Talking to the Wolf is evocative, rich, and simply bursting with rage and love. A gorgeous novel about the kinds of lifelong friendships that are both the wound and the salve, the raging storm and the hush of dawn.” —Lauren Groff (CRF 2021)
Rebecca Chace’s Talking to the Wolf is so richly peopled I feel like I could put a letter in the mail to any of its characters. Each of them is so full of singular life, so delightfully, painfully earnest in their messy trying. This is a book about friendship, family, love, memory, and the metamorphic, often corrosive, effect of time on each. As Chace’s characters move into shaky reunion, their pasts and presents tangle and fray, forcing them to finally put into words what has for too long remained unspoken. After all, as one of them concludes, “There might be a song in it.” — Kaveh Akbar (CRF 2021)
