Lovelee
XNC2 GOD
Posts: 19338
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« on: February 02, 2009, 05:55:41 pm » |
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The Clan of the Cave Bear
Its an historical fiction novel by Jean M. Auel. It is the first in the Earth's Children series that investigates the possibility of Neanderthal and modern Cro-Magnon humans living near each other at the same time.
The story begins with a 5-year old girl who is suddenly orphaned and left homeless by an earthquake that destroys her family's camp. She wanders aimlessly, naked and unable to feed herself, for several days until, having been attacked and nearly killed by a cave lion and suffering from starvation, exhaustion, and infection of her wounds, she collapses, on the verge of death.
The narrative switches to a group of people—the "Clan"—who have also been made homeless by the destruction of their cave in the earthquake and are trekking in search of a new home. Alerted by vultures circling above the unconscious child, the medicine woman of the group, Iza, asks permission from Brun, the head of the Clan, to rescue the waif. Iza uses her wide knowledge of healing herbs and procedures in order to nurse the little girl back to life. When she regains consciousness, the girl is shocked to find that her rescuers are physically quite different from people with whom she is familiar: they are Neanderthal whilst she is of the Cro-Magnon people (known to her rescuers as the "Others").
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Laughter is the best medicine, unless you've got a really nasty case of syphilis, in which case penicillin is your best bet.
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