The Touch of Bark, the Feel of Stone

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.