Author: Jean M. Auel
Publisher: Crown Publishers
ISB N: 060961097X / 978-0609610978
Price: 22.95 US-$
Source: My Mom bought it when our currency was still DM
Pages: 480
Preceeded by: /
Followed by: 2. The Valley of Horses, 3. The Mammoth Hunters, 4. The Plains of Passage, 5. The Shelters of Stone, 6. The Land of Painted Caves (To be published March 2011)
The book is set during the Stone Age and is about the small girl Ayla who lost her complete clan during an earthquake. She tries to survive on her own and soon meets the "Clan of the Cave Bear", who is searching a new cave because the earthquake had destroyed their old one. Iza, the clan's healer, accomodates Ayla like an own daughter, much dismayed by some of the other clan members, like Broud, son of the clan headman. Due to the fact that Iza hasn't got any bodily decendants, she teaches Ayla her healing powers and her and Creb, the clan's spritual clerk, teach her the sign and grunt language. Soon after that, Iza gives birth to a child of her husband that (she didn't like and) died during the earthquake. Nonetheless, Iza still treats Ayla the same way.
Due to an offense to the clan's rules Ayla had to spend a moon cycle (=1 Month) in the wilderness which she actually couldn't survive because it was winter, but Iza's daughter regularely brought her food without the other clan members' knowledge. After she served her sentence, she came back to the clan since then has the respect of all clan members, except for Broud.
After that, Ayla experiences many other adventures like going on a tour with a few members to find the rest of their main clan.
Own opinion:
(sry that the story part ends so suddenly), I personally only read the first installment of the Earth's Children cycle, honestly I didn't even know there were more books than that until an hour ago, but I'm gonna read those fow shouw!
"The Clan of the Cave Bear" is a phenomenal book, even though I read it when I was 11 or 12 and it is more of an adult book. Since then, it has been my unchallenged favourite book. It's written very emotional, it was even the first book where I cried while reading (if I had seen the movie hat would probably have been the first movie for me to cry).
To me, it seems as if the book is divided in smaller substories like the first meeting with the clan, her first punishment, the meeting with the main clan etc.
The book shows the different progress of that past time (about 30 000 years ago), because the members of the clan were still Neanderthal , but - quite obviously - Ayla's brain was already more progressed than theirs.
I'd especially recommend this book to emotional stable people because it does get very very sad at some points and makes you wanna put some characters in a bag and hit them with a stick. And maybe you should be kinda older than 16 because it has some adult content (rape, but I don't remember how much that was described because it's so long ago when I read it).
by Cecile
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