Probus Book Club

By Liz Horder

THISmonth we read Tell the Wolves

I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt. It is about the close relationship that a young June Elbus has with her uncle and Godfather Finn, and the stormy one she has with her sister, Grace, who is a couple of years older. June feels that the only person she can be herself with is her uncle, she is very shy and unsure of herself around other people. Her uncle Finn is an established artist and decides he wants to paint a portrait of June and Grace together before he dies of Aids. June gradually realises to her horror that her uncle is dying.

When her uncle dies, a stranger suddenly appears in her life. She slowly realizes that this unhappy lonely man Toby was her uncle’s partner, whom she wasn’t aware existed before her uncle’s death. Her parents blame him for Finn’s death and are very angry with him and do not want him mentioned.

Toby wants to meet June and have a friendship with her. This does happen without her family finding out. After a while she becomes very close to Toby and finds out that her uncle asked him to look after her before he died, as he realized how much she needed him and was worried for her. She also starts to realize that her sister has problems of her own, but because she was so taken up with Finn she didn’t realize how unhappy and lonely Grace was.

It is a lovely story, finally the sisters come together and June’s parents find out about Toby, who is also dying of Aids. They take pity on him at the end of the book and take him in. It does not become clear straight away why the book has the title that it does, but eventually you find out.