Short description
Auel brings her ice-age epic series, Earth's Children, to an extraordinary conclusion. Ayla, Jondalar, and their infant daughter, Jonayla, are living with the Zelandonii in the Ninth Cave. Ayla has been chosen as an acolyte to a spiritual leader and begins arduous training tasks. But the time she has spent in training rituals has caused Jondalar to drift away from her.
Long description
THE LAND OF PAINTED CAVES concludes the story of Ayla, her mate Jondalar, and their little daughter, Jonayla, taking readers on a journey of discovery and adventure as Ayla struggles to find a balance between her duties as a new mother and her training to become a Zelandoni - one of the Ninth Cave community's spiritual leaders and healers. Once again, Jean Auel combines her brilliant narrative skills and appealing characters with a remarkable re-creation of the way life was lived thousands of years ago, rendering the terrain, dwelling places, longings, beliefs, creativity and daily lives of Ice Age Europeans as real to the reader as today's news.
Review
'Jean Auel's amazing, ground-breaking series reaches a stunning conclusion... If you ever wondered what it was like for the first reasoning humans, this is the perfect way to learn. It's as though Auel has opened up a time portal, travelled with and lived with actual human beings as they begin their journey towards the people we are today. Moving and majestic, this story sweeps all before it and encompasses everything we know about our ancestors as they trek through central Europe and set up home in the caves there. All life is here in all its glory, the loves, the jealousy, the rivalry, the medicines ... A compelling historical drama with every modern trait of the human being, but set in the days when the world was young. Magnificent, and a privilege to be able to read it. You must read this.' -- Books Monthly 'She deftly creates a whole world, giving a sense of the origins of class, ethnic and cultural differences that alternately divide and fascinate us today. Among modern epic spinners, Auel has few peers.' -- Kirkus Reviews 'Incredibly poignant and relevant to today' -- Sun 4 stars 'She does have a most extraordinary talent for recreating lost worlds' -- Kate Saunders, Books Quarterly
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