Джин Ауэл: The Shelters of Stone

Jean Auel s fifth novel about Ayla, the Cro-Magnon cavewoman raised by Neanderthals, is the biggest comeback bestseller in Amazon.com history. In The Shelters of Stone, Ayla meets the Zelandonii tribe of Jondalar, the Cro-Magnon hunk she rescued from Baby, her pet lion. Ayla is pregnant. How will Jondalar s mom react? Or his bitchy jilted fianc&#233,e? Ayla wows her future in-laws by striking fire from flint and taming a wild wolf. But most regard her Neanderthal adoptive Clan as subhuman «flatheads.» Clan larynxes can t quite manage language, and Ayla must convince the Zelandonii that Clan sign language isn t just arm-flapping. Zelandonii and Clan are skirmishing, and those who interbreed are deemed «abominations.» What would Jondalar s tribe think if they knew Ayla had to abandon her half-breed son in Clan country? The plot is slow to unfold, because Auel s first goal is to pack the tale with period Pleistocene detail, provocative speculation, and bits of romance, sex, tribal politics, soap opera, and homicidal wooly rhino-hunting adventure. It s an enveloping fact-based fantasy, a genre-crossing time trip to the Ice Age.