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More copies of this ISBNThis title in other editionsThe White Boneby Barbara Gowdy
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments: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." Barbara Gowdy is the author of five previous books, including Mister Sandman and We So Seldom Look On Love, and has twice been a finalist for both the Governor General's Award and the Giller Prize. She lives in Toronto, Ontario. A tour de force of the imagination, The White Bone is a thrilling journey into the minds of African elephants as they struggle to survive in a land wracked by drought and slaughter. The story is told by Mud, who at the novel's opening has survived an attack on her family by ivory poachers. She finds herself at the center of a desperate quest for the White Bone: an object of mythic power which, if found, might lead the herd to safety and survival. "Inspired . . . A marvel of a book . . . The language, social structure, and intellectual and spiritual world of elephants are as real as the fabric of human life. Absolutely compelling."Alice Munro "Gowdy's chief accomplishment is that she manages genuinely to entrench us in the elephant psyche . . . Dazzling . . . Gowdy renders this arid African landscape with a subtle gorgeousness reminiscent of Isak Dinesen."The Boston Globe "Gowdy here performs her greatest creative feat yet . . . Gowdy conjures a vibrantly visceral world . . . The White Bone presents a lyrical educated guess on what elephant consciousness might feel likeincluding, most sadly and movingly, the perpetual threat of extinction."Entertainment Weekly "Fascinating . . . Through the course of The White Bone we come to care about the elephants as much as we would humans."Judy Doenges, The Seattle Times "Written like an indigenous legend, The White Bone is about the burden of memory . . . Readers who make it through will never think the same of elephants and their 'appalling resilience.'"Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today "Gowdy [has a] great gift for sensual description . . . The novel is plenty funny and plenty odd."Sarah Boxer, The New York Times Book Review "Compelling . . .The White Bone takes place in a self-sufficient and brilliantly authentic world . . . Impressive and delightful."Jelena Petrovic, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune "A richly detailed novel."The Daily News "Brave . . . Gowdy has embarked on the creation of an extremely distinct, invented world, with its own social and linguistic structures, its own myths and totems."Claire Messud, Newsday Review:"From the enormously gifted Gowdy, a mesmerizing journey....Warmly conveying a remarkably full vision of elephant life, as well as the almost incomprehensible tragedy of species annihilation, Gowdy has created an astonishingly moving saga." Kirkus Reviews Review:"[D]espite her great skill and the colossal effort of imaginative empathy it must have entailed, [Gowdy's] book is hard going....Without being overly anthropomorphic, Gowdy manages to individualize a number of [elephants] as having human-scale emotions, even humor....[T]he reader is disappointed that so talented a writer could have exerted so much effort on so unpromising a subject." Publishers Weekly Review:"[A] novel for only the most imaginative readers, or at least those who are willing to accept elephants as sardonic and lascivious." Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today Review:"Gowdy is a strong and sympathetic writer, capable of conveying real emotion even in the most removed of settings. In this way, we can inhabit the world of her heroine, Mud....We can momentarily understand, in the wake of an elephant massacre, what it might be like to lose 23 members of your family rather than just one, and how it might feel to move from place to place in search of sanctuary." Alex Clark, The Guardian (U.K.) Review:"[A] big religious put-on, an elephantine Pilgrim's Progress....[T]he novel is plenty funny and plenty odd....Gowdy [has a] great gift for parody and [an] even greater gift for sensual, gross-out description." Sarah Boxer, The New York Times Book Review Review:"The mysticism and majesty of the African elephant loses no honor in Gowdy's new novel....This masterfully crafted novel is highly recommended for all libraries." Library Journal Review:"[Gowdy] did quite a bit of research and does provide views of how elephants live. It is a bit disjointed and often hard to keep track of the various elephants since they all seem to have two names. Detailed family trees are given, along with a glossary and a map of the area." KLIATT Synopsis: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." Barbara Gowdy is the author of five previous books, including Mister Sandman and We So Seldom Look On Love, and has twice been a finalist for both the Governor General's Award and the Giller Prize. She lives in Toronto, Ontario. A tour de force of the imagination, The White Bone is a thrilling journey into the minds of African elephants as they struggle to survive in a land wracked by drought and slaughter. The story is told by Mud, who at the novel's opening has survived an attack on her family by ivory poachers. She finds herself at the center of a desperate quest for the White Bone: an object of mythic power which, if found, might lead the herd to safety and survival. "Inspired . . . A marvel of a book . . . The language, social structure, and intellectual and spiritual world of elephants are as real as the fabric of human life. Absolutely compelling."Alice Munro "Gowdy's chief accomplishment is that she manages genuinely to entrench us in the elephant psyche . . . Dazzling . . . Gowdy renders this arid African landscape with a subtle gorgeousness reminiscent of Isak Dinesen."The Boston Globe "Gowdy here performs her greatest creative feat yet . . . Gowdy conjures a vibrantly visceral world . . . The White Bone presents a lyrical educated guess on what elephant consciousness might feel likeincluding, most sadly and movingly, the perpetual threat of extinction."Entertainment Weekly "Fascinating . . . Through the course of The White Bone we come to care about the elephants as much as we would humans."Judy Doenges, The Seattle Times "Written like an indigenous legend, The White Bone is about the burden of memory . . . Readers who make it through will never think the same of elephants and their 'appalling resilience.'"Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today "Gowdy [has a] great gift for sensual description . . . The novel is plenty funny and plenty odd."Sarah Boxer, The New York Times Book Review "Compelling . . .The White Bone takes place in a self-sufficient and brilliantly authentic world . . . Impressive and delightful."Jelena Petrovic, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune "A richly detailed novel."The Daily News "Brave . . . Gowdy has embarked on the creation of an extremely distinct, invented world, with its own social and linguistic structures, its own myths and totems."Claire Messud, Newsday Synopsis: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." About the AuthorBarbara Gowdy is the author of five previous books, including Mister Sandman and We So Seldom Look On Love, and she has twice been a finalist for both the Governor General's Award and the Giller Prize. She lives in Toronto, Ontario. 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