The shelters of stone - Jean M. Auel [0]
A Sneak Preview from THE LAND OF PAINTED CAVES
Read an exciting preview from Jean M. Auel’s The Land of Painted Caves, on sale in hardcover in Spring 2011.
EARTH’S CHILDREN® Series Sampler
Read excerpts from each of the novels in the Earth’s Children® series.
Q&A with Jean M. Auel
In this special Q&A, Jean M. Auel discusses her bestselling Earth’s Children® series.
THE SHELTERS OF STONE
A Bantam Book
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Crown hardcover edition published June 2002
Published by
Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York
EARTH’S CHILDREN is a trademark of Jean M. Auel
All rights reserved
Copyright © 2002 by Jean M. Auel
Map and illustrations copyright © by Radica Prato
Inset map copyright © Palacios after Auel
Excerpt from The Land of Painted Caves copyright 2010 by Jean M. Auel.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2002000995
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.
For information address: Crown Publishers, Inc., New York, NY
Bantam Books and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-307-76764-6
This book contains an excerpt from the forthcoming book The Land of Painted Caves. This excerpt has been set for this edition only and may not reflect the final content of the forthcoming edition.
v3.1_r2
For KENDALL,
who knows more about what’s to come than almost anyone
… except his mother,
and for CHRISTY,
the mother of his boys,
and for FORREST, SKYLAR, and SLADE,
three of the best,
with love
BY THE AUTHOR OF
The Clan of the Cave Bear
The Valley of Horses
The Mammoth Hunters
The Plains of Passage
Hailed as “the publishing event of the decade”*
THE SHELTERS OF STONE is the fifth in the bestselling Earth’s Children® series, following:
THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR
“Our nomination for the year’s great escape.”
—Playboy
“Imaginative, exciting.”
—The New York Times Book Review
THE VALLEY OF HORSES
“A powerful story … Auel is a highly imaginative writer. She humanizes prehistory and gives it immediacy and clarity.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Auel may be creating one of the most believable characters in English fiction—one to rank with Sherlock Holmes, Scarlett O’Hara, and a handful of others.”
—UPI
THE MAMMOTH HUNTERS
“A compelling, pulse-quickening tale of adventure, love, and survival during a period of human history that has seldom been drawn upon by other fiction writers.”
—Chicago Tribune Book World
“Storytelling in the grand tradition.… From the violent panorama of spring on the steppes to musicians jamming on a mammoth-bone marimba, Auel’s books are a stunning example of world building.”
—Vogue
THE PLAINS OF PASSAGE
“Pure entertainment at its sublime, wholly exhilarating best.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Thrilling … This magical book is rich in details of all kinds … but it is the depth of the characters’ emotional lives … that gives the novel such a stranglehold.”
—Cosmopolitan
*Publishers Weekly
Novels by Jean M. Auel
THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR
THE VALLEY OF HORSES
THE MAMMOTH HUNTERS
THE PLAINS OF PASSAGE
THE SHELTERS OF STONE
And the latest novel in the Earth’s Children® series
THE LAND OF PAINTED CAVES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am more grateful than I can say for the assistance of many people who have helped me to learn about the ancient world of the people who lived when glaciers advanced far south of today’s margins and covered a quarter of the earth’s surface. However, there are some details which I have chosen to use, particularly with regard to certain theories and the timing of certain sites and events, which may not be accepted by the majority of the professional community at this time. Some may be oversights but others were chosen