In this triumphant volume, the courageous Ayla and her beloved Jondalar, along with their animal friends Wolf, Whinney, and Racer, have completed their epic journey across Europe and are greeted by Jondalar’s people, the Zelandonii. These people of the Ninth Cave fascinate Ayla, and in their spiritual leader—the woman who initiated Jondalar into the Gift of Pleasure—she finds a fellow healer with whom to share her knowledge.But as Ayla and Jondalar prepare for their formal mating at the Summer Meeting, there are difficulties. Not all the Zelandonii are welcoming. Some fear Ayla’s unfamiliar ways and her relationship with the Clan, openly opposing her union with Jondalar. Now Ayla must call on all her wisdom and instincts to find her place in this complicated society, to prepare for the birth of her child, and to decide on the role she is to play in shaping the destiny of the Zelandonii.Fifth in the acclaimed Earth’s Children® series

Product Description: Jean M. Auel’s enthralling Earth’s Children series has become a literary phenomenon, beloved by readers around the world. In a brilliant novel as vividly authentic and entertaining as those that came before, Jean M. Auel returns us to the earliest days of humankind and to the captivating adventures of the courageous woman called Ayla...read more

Ayla, one of the most remarkable and beloved heroines in contemporary fiction, continues to explore the world and the people around her with curiosity, insight, and, above all, courage.As the story opens, Ayla, Jondalar, and their infant daughter, Jonayla, are living with the Zelandonii in the Ninth Cave―a shelter of stone. Ayla has been chosen as an acolyte and has embarked on the arduous task of training to become a spiritual leader. The wisdom that Ayla gained from her struggles as an orphaned child, alone in a hostile environment, strengthen her as she moves closer to leadership of the Zelandonia.Whatever the obstacles, Ayla’s inventive spirit produces new ways to lessen the difficulties of daily life: searching for wild edibles to make delicious meals, experimenting with techniques to ease the long journeys the Zelandoni must take, honing her skills as a healer and a leader. And then, there are the Sacred Caves, the caves that Ayla’s mentor―the Donier, the First of the Zelandonia―takes her to see. These caves are filled with remarkable art―paintings of mammoths, lions, aurochs, rhinoceros, reindeer, bison, bear. The powerful, mystical aura within these caves sometimes overwhelms Ayla and the rituals of initiation bring her close to death. But through those rituals, Ayla gains A Gift of Knowledge so important that it will change the world.Spellbinding drama, meticulous research, fascinating detail, and superb narrative skill combine to make The Land of Painted Caves a captivating, utterly believable creation of a long ago civilization and serves as an astonishing end to this beloved saga.

This odyssey into the distant past carries us back to the awesome mysteries of the exotic, primev....

Ayla's final preparations for her initiation as a Zelandoni bring The Land of Painted Caves to a riveting climax. So much time apart from Jondalar has caused him to drift away from her. The rituals themselves bring her close to death. But through those rituals, Ayla gains A Gift of Knowledge so important that it will change the world. Spellbinding drama, meticulous research, fascinating detail, and superb narrative skill combine to make The Land of Painted Caves a captivating, utterly believable creation of a civilization that resonates long after the reader has turned the last page, and serves as an astonishing end to this beloved saga.

Product Description: Ayla, one of the most remarkable and beloved heroines in contemporary fiction, continues to explore the world and the people around her with curiosity, insight, and, above all, courage.As the story opens, Ayla, Jondalar, and their infant daughter, Jonayla, are living with the Zelandonii in the Ninth Cave―a shelter of stone...read more

Product Description: Jean M. Auel’s enthralling Earth’s Children series has become a literary phenomenon, beloved by readers around the world. In a brilliant novel as vividly authentic and entertaining as those that came before, Jean M. Auel returns us to the earliest days of humankind and to the captivating adventures of the courageous woman called Ayla...read more

Product Description: This novel of awesome beauty and power is a moving saga about people, relationships, and the boundaries of love. Through Jean M. Auel’s magnificent storytelling we are taken back to the dawn of modern humans, and with a girl named Ayla we are swept up in the harsh and beautiful Ice Age world they shared with the ones who called themselves the Clan of the Cave Bear...read more

Product Description: In this triumphant volume, the courageous Ayla and her beloved Jondalar, along with their animal friends Wolf, Whinney, and Racer, have completed their epic journey across Europe and are greeted by Jondalar’s people, the Zelandonii...read more

Ayla and Jondalar continue their epic journey across Ice Age Europe to join Jondalar's people, the Zelandonii, confronting new hardships and perilous challenges along the way.

Ayla and Jondalar journey across Ice Age Europe, awing the primitive tribes--she with her ability to communicate with animals, and he with his mastery of the tools of war.

Ayla and Jondalar embark on a journey that takes them to the Mamutoi, the Mammoth Hunters, and Ayla must make a fateful choice between two men--Jondalar and Ranec, the Mamutoi's master carver, in a story of Ice Age Europe.

Ayla shares a lonely valley with a herd of steppe ponies, harnesses their power, and discovers speech and love with Jondalar, a member of her own race.

An injured and orphaned infant carries within her the seed and hope of mankind in this epic of survival and destiny set at the dawn of prehistory.