It’s also a great story, and the writing is just beautiful with brief, imaginative descriptions that reinterpret the reader’s perception of something as simple as a hill, or a wall, or a sky. There is so much heart in this book beneath its characters’ cruel world. If you have one, what is your favorite book of all times? I love Philip Reeve’s masterful Here Lies Arthur, a historical novel taking place in 500s Britain that depicts who the real “King Arthur” might have been: a brutal minor war-band leader with a reputation swelled by stories. Within a year after reading it, I began writing novels myself. It opened a new kind of storytelling to me: vivid and exciting, but with depth. I’d read a lot of books I’d enjoyed before then, but The Dark is Rising was the first book I loved that much. I figured it would be a fun English story, but two things I didn’t expect struck me very quickly: how familiar Will Stanton’s world felt like, and how exciting and inspiring the story was.

I was in London on a holiday with my family one summer and reading anything I could find, and my mother handed me a copy. What book influenced you most when you were a child (and why)? It was The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. The Mad Wolf’s Daughter is her debut novel. Diane lives with her husband and son and thinks often of Scotland, where her novels take place. She works for the Maine Humanities Council, volunteers at her son’s school library, and is addicted to tea, toast, castles, legends, and most things medieval. Interview with Diane Magras, the author of THE MAD WOLF'S DAUGHTERĪbout Diane Magras Diane Magras grew up on Mount Desert Island in Maine surrounded by woods, cliffs, and the sea.

The Mad Wolf's Daughter by Diane Magras