The Wolf Den

Written by Elodie Harper

Narrated by Antonia Beamish

#1 London Times Bestseller

“A gripping historical story.” —The Independent

“This powerful . . . trilogy opener beautifully walks the line between gutting and hopeful.” —BuzzFeed, Best Books of March 2022

Sold by her impoverished mother. Enslaved in an infamous brothel in Pompeii. Determined to fight for her freedom at all costs. . . . Enter into the Wolf Den.

Amara was once the beloved daughter of a doctor in Greece, until her father’s sudden death plunged her mother into destitution. Now Amara is a slave and prostitute in Pompeii’s notorious Wolf Den brothel or lupanar, owned by a cruel and ruthless man. Intelligent and resourceful, she is forced to hide her true self. But her spirit is far from broken. Buoyed by the sisterhood she forges with the brothel’s other women, Amara finds solace in the laughter and hopes they all share. For the streets of the city are alive with opportunity—here, even the lowest-born slave can dream of a new beginning. But everything in Pompeii has a price. How much will Amara’s freedom cost her? The Wolf Den is the first in a trilogy of novels about the lives of women in ancient Pompeii.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Union Square & Co.
• Release date: Mar 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781668611982

Elodie Harper

Elodie Harper is a journalist and bestselling author. She is currently a reporter at ITV News Anglia, and before that worked as a producer for Channel 4 News. The Temple of Fortuna is the final book in her bestselling Wolf Den trilogy. The first book, The Wolf Den, was a Waterstones Book of the Month and a Sunday Times Top 15 bestseller, and the second, The House with the Golden Door was a Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller. elodieharper.com

Reviews for The Wolf Den

[infjsarah · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a GOOD Book. Brutal but enjoyable.

[cygnet81 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Unexpected

[jillrhudy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thanks to Sterling Publishing for an advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.This novel is so unique. I've never read anything like it. This girl-power story of a Pompeii brothel centers on Amara, sex-trafficked by her own mother and sold to a cold and heartless pimp named Felix. She is close to a younger slave named Dido, but many of the "wolves" in the den help one another in order to survive. A brilliant doctor's daughter whose only crime is poverty, Amara is determined to gain her freedom—at any cost. Amara becomes a musical act with Dido and sees the wealthy and glittering side of Pompeii, and befriends Pliny the Elder at one of the parties where she performs.What amazes me is how unsexy this book manages to be when sex is practically all that happens. The pain and the grief of the women overwhelms any titillation the reader might get from the depictions of sex, which are portrayed as either a cold calculus or a despairing submission by the women (except for one green-eyed Briton who fights tooth and nail against her captor and rapists), and brutal rape by the men. There are all the rivalries both within the Wolf Den and between the Wolf Den and other brothels, that one would expect. The depiction of Pompeii life is well-researched and very convincing, especially given how little of Pompeii remains.The ending seemed a little wobbly but it definitely fit the novel.