Blacktail
Will be published approx. on 3. September 2026
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-1-0374-1715-3 (ISBN)
Description
'A modern masterpiece. Blacktail will consume you' - Marcus Kliewer, bestselling author of We Used to Live Here
'Blacktail is as glorious as it is gruesome' - V. E. Schwab, Sunday Times bestselling author of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
A wolf embarks on a primal hunt for revenge. Blacktail is the highly-anticipated novel from Scott Hawkins, the critically acclaimed author of The Library at Mount Char.
Blacktail is a half-breed wolf, born to hunt. When he finds love beyond a garden wall, he dares to imagine a peaceful life - until men butcher his mate and unborn pups in a surgical act of cruelty. His grief ignites a rampage of torn throats and shattered bone, a slaughter so absolute it draws the gaze of an ancient feline witch. She sends him south to wake the sleeping Forest God and end the age of reason.
Fuelled by a rage that frightens Hell itself, Blacktail wages war against men and the beasts who dare defend them. From a gore-soaked wilderness to a burning confrontation with Heaven, Blacktail is a feral odyssey of vengeance.
The Forest God sleeps. But what will be the price of waking him?
* * *
'Touching, horrifying, and entertaining . . . You should all get excited for this book'
- Mark Lawrence, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Book That Wouldn't Burn
'Blacktail is one to savor; one to delight in the eccentricities of; one to sit with long after it ends'
- Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of Girl Dinner
'Beautiful, brutal fantasy, red in tooth and claw'
- Chuck Wendig, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Staircase in the Woods
'Blacktail is as glorious as it is gruesome' - V. E. Schwab, Sunday Times bestselling author of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
A wolf embarks on a primal hunt for revenge. Blacktail is the highly-anticipated novel from Scott Hawkins, the critically acclaimed author of The Library at Mount Char.
Blacktail is a half-breed wolf, born to hunt. When he finds love beyond a garden wall, he dares to imagine a peaceful life - until men butcher his mate and unborn pups in a surgical act of cruelty. His grief ignites a rampage of torn throats and shattered bone, a slaughter so absolute it draws the gaze of an ancient feline witch. She sends him south to wake the sleeping Forest God and end the age of reason.
Fuelled by a rage that frightens Hell itself, Blacktail wages war against men and the beasts who dare defend them. From a gore-soaked wilderness to a burning confrontation with Heaven, Blacktail is a feral odyssey of vengeance.
The Forest God sleeps. But what will be the price of waking him?
* * *
'Touching, horrifying, and entertaining . . . You should all get excited for this book'
- Mark Lawrence, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Book That Wouldn't Burn
'Blacktail is one to savor; one to delight in the eccentricities of; one to sit with long after it ends'
- Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of Girl Dinner
'Beautiful, brutal fantasy, red in tooth and claw'
- Chuck Wendig, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Staircase in the Woods
Reviews / Votes
Reader, be warned. This is not a gentle book, and those who cannot bear to see an animal hurt should guard their hearts. But persist, and you will be rewarded. Blacktail is as glorious as it is gruesome -- V. E. Schwab, <i>Sunday Times</i> bestselling author of <i>Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil</i> and <i>The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue</i> Blacktail is a serious, wild, trippy, and gory flight of imagination . . . No one is spared the fang -- Paul Tremblay, Bram Stoker Award winning author of <i>A Head Full of Ghosts </i>and <i>Horror Movie</i> Wickedly sharp, unflinchingly brutal, and nothing short of a modern masterpiece. Blacktail will consume you -- Marcus Kliewer, bestselling author of <i>We Used to Live Here</i> and <i>The Caretaker</i> Mesmerizing and strange, like the headiest of folklore. Blacktail is one to savour; one to delight in the eccentricities of; one to sit with long after it ends -- Olivie Blake, <i>Sunday Times</i> bestselling author of <i>Girl Dinner</i> and <i>The Atlas Six</i> A mad, feral fable - this is beautiful, brutal fantasy, red in tooth and claw. Funny, heartbreaking, violent. All hail Blacktail. Down with the two-legs -- Chuck Wendig, <i>Sunday Times</i> bestselling author of <i>The Staircase in the Woods</i> and <i>The Book of Accidents</i> A tale of lupine vengeance - at first - whose stakes escalate to degrees I never saw coming. Unexpected, blood-soaked and vividly told -- qntm, author of <i>There is No Antimemetics Division</i> Scott Hawkins' BLACKTAIL can be described in so many ways. Strange, beautiful, surreal, brutal, fantastic, fantastical. It evokes Richard Adams at his most bloodthirsty, Tolkien at his most apocalyptic. But, above all, it's simply transcendent. Transportive. A magnificent, bloody saga that will change the way you look at the world. -- Nat Cassidy, bestselling author of <i>When the Wolf Comes Home</i> and <i>Mary</i> Blacktail is a journey through a universe simultaneously surreal and familiar, a tale that will leave claw marks on your brain that won't quickly fade. You simply won't read another book like it -- Jason Pargin, author of <i>John Dies at the End</i> Blacktail is a wild, wholly engrossing ride that puts you in the brain of a wolf hellbent on destroying all of us . . . Hawkins delivers a rich mythology laced with both humor and tragedy that will have you reconsidering your own place in the natural order -- Max Doty, author of <i>The House that Eats the Dead</i>More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Pan Macmillan
Target group
Interest Age: From 18 years
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 153 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-0374-1715-3 (9781037417153)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Scott Hawkins
Blacktail
An epic journey of revenge in this unique dark fantasy from the author of The Library at Mount Char
E-Book
approx. 09/2026
Macmillan
€19.49
Not yet available
Person
Scott Hawkins is the author of The Library at Mount Char. He works as a Linux engineer focused on big data. He and his wife live in a woodsy area about an hour north of Atlanta. She keeps a nice garden. He's in his tenth year of failing to remodel the basement. Blacktail is his second novel.