Character Study: Peyre, from The Hunter and the Wild Girl

In Character Study, we’ll take a deeper look at one character from a book or series. Get to know the character–what they like, what they do, and, more importantly, what they read. If you like them, spend a little more time getting to know them by reading the book!

Peyre Rouff, this novel’s eponymous hunter, lost his “hunter’s spirit” 13 years before the events of Pauline Holdstock’s The Hunter and the Wild Girl (Goose Lane Editions), in a tragic accident. Peyre lives alone, accompanied only by his old, trustworthy dog Berzélius, in the Chateau he stewards for an absentee owner in Languedoc, France. Considered a bit of a madman by the populace, Peyre whiles away his days building elaborate, detailed taxidermy specimens for display in a side-building on the estate, including an otherworldly winged hare that he grants a special home in the library – that is, when he doesn’t remember his past and try to drink himself into oblivion.Now confronted with the care of a feral girl discovered on the fringes of the Chateau’s property, Peyre’s also forced to contend with the villagers he’s been self-isolated from for over a decade, as well as the ramifications of his tragedy as the girl brings him back – amidst the sea of taxidermied animals he’s used to shield himself from memory – to something resembling life.But how will it end? Check out Pauline Holdstock’s The Hunter and the Wild Girl, available now.***Thanks to Kathleen at Goose Lane for getting us in touch with this fantastic novel.