Lobos

Abstract

Lobos follows the entangled lives of five characters as they navigate through traumatic experiences, illness, morbid findings, and catharsis during the COVID-19 pandemic. A Forensics researcher and professor at Lisbon’s Instituto de Medicina Legal, Fedra, who has witnessed and worked among fatalities in war scenarios, is now working alongside colleague António on the H-Unique project, a hand database focused on easing investigation procedures in pedocriminal cases. Fedra goes through emotional instability and burnout due to the nature of her work, later finding solace in her mother’s countryside house in a small village. A self-retired war photographer, Stefan builds a hermit-like reputation in the Portuguese small village where he built his own home after years of witnessing the horrors of war. Alongside his acquaintance Manel, he builds a wolf sanctuary in the region, protecting its animals against illness and fire with help from several foreign volunteers, Fedra, and Leonor. An otherwise regular teenager, Leonor (Fedra’s niece) falls victim to a tutor in his twenties, who distributes child sexual abuse material, targeting her on Internet chatrooms. Leonor attempts to search for herself as she moves to her grandmother’s countryside house with her aunt, Fedra. Unable and unwilling to access her phone per psychiatric advice, Leonor becomes fascinated with the wildlife surrounding the village, taking pictures of venomous fungi, observing veterinary surgeries and spending time with her favorite wolf, Estrela, at Stefan’s sanctuary. A retired Literature researcher and professor, Amélia suffers from the mental oblivion granted by Alzheimer’s disease. Her two daughters, Fedra and Helena, and her granddaughter Leonor navigate through her existence at a retirement home with pandemic-typical restrictions. Suspicious of a likely sexual crime she had been put under, Fedra attempts to communicate with her mother in hopes of uncovering the identity of her abuser. All effort reveals itself unfruitful as Amélia’s disease worsens throughout the pandemic. Lobos is a contemporary fiction novel which tackles the scientific and behind-the-scenes aspects of those investigating crime, war, and wildlife, with hurdles which characterize the COVID-19 pandemic. These aspects challenge most characters in this novel, shifting their mindsets and haunting them until they isolate themselves from society’s deepest yet most visible corners.