A thrilling journey into the minds of African elephants as they struggle to survive.
If, as many recent nonfiction bestsellers have revealed, animals possess emotions and awareness, they must also have stories. In The White Bone, a novel imagined entirely from the perspective of African elephants, Barbara Gowdy creates a world whole and separate that yet illuminates our own.
For years, young Mud and her family have roamed the high grasses, swamps, and deserts of the sub-Sahara. Now the earth is scorched by drought, and the mutilated bodies of family and friends lie scattered on the ground, shot down by ivory hunters. Nothing-not the once familiar terrain, or the age-old rhythms of life, or even memory itself-seems reliable anymore. Yet a slim prophecy of hope is passed on from water hole to water hole: the sacred white bone of legend will point the elephants toward the Safe Place. And so begins a quest through Africa's vast and perilous plains-until at last the survivors face a decisive trial of loyalty and courage.
In The White Bone, Barbara Gowdy performs a feat of imagination virtually unparalleled in modern fiction. Plunged into an alien landscape, we orient ourselves in elephant time, elephant space, elephant consciousness and begin to feel, as Gowdy puts it, "what it would be like to be that big and gentle, to be that imperiled, and to have that prodigious memory."
If, as many recent nonfiction bestsellers have revealed, animals possess emotions and awareness, they must also have stories. In The White Bone, a novel imagined entirely from the perspective of African elephants, Barbara Gowdy creates a world whole and separate that yet illuminates our own.
For years, young Mud and her family have roamed the high grasses, swamps, and deserts of the sub-Sahara. Now the earth is scorched by drought, and the mutilated bodies of family and friends lie scattered on the ground, shot down by ivory hunters. Nothing-not the once familiar terrain, or the age-old rhythms of life, or even memory itself-seems reliable anymore. Yet a slim prophecy of hope is passed on from water hole to water hole: the sacred white bone of legend will point the elephants toward the Safe Place. And so begins a quest through Africa's vast and perilous plains-until at last the survivors face a decisive trial of loyalty and courage.
In The White Bone, Barbara Gowdy performs a feat of imagination virtually unparalleled in modern fiction. Plunged into an alien landscape, we orient ourselves in elephant time, elephant space, elephant consciousness and begin to feel, as Gowdy puts it, "what it would be like to be that big and gentle, to be that imperiled, and to have that prodigious memory."
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Used availability for Barbara Gowdy's The White Bone
See all available used copies of this book at: Abebooks UK or Abebooks US
Hardback Editions
May 1999 : Hardback
| Title: The White Bone Author(s): Barbara Gowdy ISBN: 0-00-225834-X / 978-0-00-225834-0 (UK edition) Publisher: Flamingo Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
April 1999 : Hardback
| Title: The White Bone: a Novel Author(s): Barbara Gowdy ISBN: 0-8050-6036-7 / 978-0-8050-6036-2 (USA edition) Publisher: Henry Holt & Company Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
August 1998 : Hardback
| Title: The white bone Author(s): Barbara Gowdy ISBN: 0-00-224395-4 / 978-0-00-224395-7 (UK edition) Publisher: HarperCollins Canada / Fiction Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
Paperback Editions
January 2010 : Paperback
| Title: The White Bone Author(s): Barbara Gowdy ISBN: 1-55468-524-9 / 9781554685240 (USA edition) Publisher: HarperCollins Canada / Fiction Availability: Amazon Amazon CA More details... |
June 2008 : Paperback
| Title: The White Bone Author(s): Barbara Gowdy ISBN: 0-00-729157-4 / 978-0-00-729157-1 (UK edition) Publisher: Flamingo Availability: Amazon UK More details... |
March 2007 : Paperback
| Title: The White Bone Author(s): Barbara Gowdy ISBN: 0-00-647489-6 / 978-0-00-647489-0 (UK edition) Publisher: Harper Perennial Canada Availability: Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
2003 : Paperback
| Title: The White Bone : A Novel Author(s): Barbara Gowdy Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Canada, Limited Availability: Amazon More details... |
December 2002 : Paperback
| Title: The White Bone Author(s): Barbara Gowdy ISBN: 0-00-639233-4 / 978-0-00-639233-0 (UK edition) Publisher: Harpercollins Trade Sales Dept Availability: Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
April 2001 : Paperback
| Title: The White Bone: Picador USA Reading Group Guides Author(s): Barbara Gowdy ISBN: 0-312-26513-1 / 978-0-312-26513-7 (USA edition) Publisher: Picador USA Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
June 2000 : Paperback
| Title: The White Bone : A Novel Author(s): Barbara Gowdy Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
June 2000 : Paperback
| Title: The White Bone: A Novel Author(s): Barbara Gowdy ISBN: 0-312-26412-7 / 978-0-312-26412-3 (USA edition) Publisher: Picador Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
May 2000 : Paperback
| Title: The White Bone Author(s): Barbara Gowdy ISBN: 0-00-655154-8 / 978-0-00-655154-6 (UK edition) Publisher: Flamingo Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
April 2000 : Paperback
| Title: White Bone Author(s): Barbara Gowdy ISBN: 0-8050-6035-9 / 978-0-8050-6035-5 (USA edition) Publisher: Henry Holt & Company Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
November 1999 : Paperback
| Title: The White Bone Author(s): Barbara Gowdy ISBN: 0-00-225957-5 / 978-0-00-225957-6 (UK edition) Publisher: Flamingo Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
1998 : Paperback
| Title: The White Bone Author(s): Barbara Gowdy ISBN: 0-00-648121-3 / 978-0-00-648121-8 (UK edition) Publisher: Flamingo Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
1982 : Paperback
| Title: White Bone Author(s): Barbara Gowdy Publisher: PERENNIAL PUBLICATIONS Availability: Amazon More details... |
Other Editions
January 1998 : Unknown
| Title: THE WHITE BONE Author(s): Publisher: Harper Flamingo Canada, 1998, Canada Availability: Amazon More details... |
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