Down in the Valley by Paolo Cognetti

Two estranged brothers from a mountainous village in Northern Italy meet up for a night of drinking to settle accounts after their father's death. Meanwhile, a wolf is roaming the highlands causing carnage, and a pregnant wife is learning the brutal lore of her husband's childhood. With the potent symbolism of short fiction, this novel uses trees, rivers, and wolves to tell an exquisite story of place and ferocious love. MOLLY