No one should miss this beautiful legend. --Tony Hillerman Velma Walliss award-winning bestselling tale about two elderly Native American women who must fend for themselves during a harsh Alaskan winter Based on an Athabascan Indian legend passed along for many generations from mothers to daughters of the upper Yukon River Valley in Alaska this is the suspenseful shocking ultimately inspirational tale of two old women abandoned by their tribe during a brutal winter famine. Though these women have been known to complain more than contribute they now must either survive on their own or die trying. In simple but vivid detail Wallis depicts a landscape and way of life that are at once merciless and starkly beautiful. In her old women she has created two heroines of steely determination whose story of betrayal friendship community and forgiveness speaks straight to the heart with clarity sweetness and wisdom (Ursula K. Le Guin).
