The Touch of Bark, the Feel of Stone
Racken has never been to
the ends of the earth. He cannot speak to reindeer, he cannot fly like
a bird, and he has never seen the all-mother, nor does he want to.
Racken lives in the time before – before the vast forests of Great
Britain were chopped down, a time when people gathered roots and
berries and hunted and fished in a land where aurochs, wolves, and deer
roamed and huge flocks of birds clouded the sky. It was a time before
people wrote, a time before his people raised sheep or cows. It was a
time when Indo-European tribes began to arrive.
Racken's tribe
was one of the old tribes, and the old tribes began to fear what they
saw happening: why were there fewer deer and the fish that filled the
streams were not as plentiful, and why had the weather changed? Why,
indeed, were there so many mysteries, and more importantly, who were
these people who came over the water to settle in the land of the
people?
At the age of thirteen, Racken's only concern was to
become a hunter for his tribe, like his father was; but all that
changes when an odd band of men come to Racken's village. And to his
surprise, his mother apprentices him to their leader, Mathen. It is
with these men that Racken learns the depths of friendship and fear,
hate and trust, love and loss. He is on a long journey that brings him
to the very edge of life, and the vision he brings back challenges him
and his tribe. On this journey, begun with great reluctance, Racken
learns and becomes much more than he had ever imagined.
