THE WOLF BOY

Osherson’s historical novel chronicles a clash between Carthaginians and Romans more than 2,000 years ago.

The story opens with a battlefield at Cannae in August of 216 B.C.E. Assessing the upcoming battle are two men: the famed Carthaginian general Hannibal and his servant Nahatum, an orphaned child known as “The Wolf Boy” (“that’s what they’d called him when his guards caught him trying to steal from his tent two years ago back in Iberia”). Although their status in their society couldn’t be more different, these two men become inextricably linked over the course of the novel as they work to defeat the Romans in combat and through plundering. Osherson switches between the two characters’ third-person perspectives; Nahatum is shown to initially revere Hannibal: “Hannibal’s gray eyes blazed, as a lion when he spotted his prey. And the boy burned with desire to be a lion too, to make his master proud.” Although Hannibal is a formidable master with a voice, when angry, that’s like “a lash,” he trusts Nahatum. Things become complicated, though, when Solyphos, Hannibal’s scribe, teaches Nahatum how to read and write and he achieves a certain power among his fellow Carthaginians due to his literacy. The Carthaginians eventually succumb to suspicion, betrayal, and extraordinary violence, making readers question if their enemy is an outsider or within their own ranks. Osherson’s writing can be quite vivid, and at times, it tilts toward the surreal, as in a description of an imminent conflict: “Suddenly, the birds seemed to all sing at once, to bring the morning light with their calls….Those were signals. And then the trees all around seemed to uproot and hurl themselves down the hill.” Overall, the prose is best when it’s rooted in the natural world or specific details of the time period. That said, Osherson is occasionally prone to clichés, such as “the guards threw the boy into the tent like a sack of potatoes.” Still, the story’s clipped pace and the complexity of the two main characters make up for such minor flaws.

A colorful tale of the brutality of war and the fragility of trust.