The highly anticipated sixth book of Jean Auel's Earth's Children® series, The Land of Painted Caves, is the culmination fans have been waiting for. Continuing the story of Ayla and Jondalar, Auel combines her brilliant narrative skills and appealing characters with a remarkable re-creation of the way life was lived more than 25,000 years ago. The Land of Painted Caves is an exquisite achievement by one of the world's most beloved authors....

Story of the orphaned Ayla's struggle to fit in and survive in the period when Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals existed at the same time on the Earth....

The Shelters of Stone opens as Ayla and Jondalar, along with their animal friends, Wolf, Whinney, and Racer, complete their epic journey across Europe and are greeted by Jondalar’s people: the Zelandonii. The people of the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii fascinate Ayla. Their clothes, customs, artifacts, even their homes—formed in great cliffs of vertical limestone—are a source of wonder to her. And in the woman Zelandoni, the spiritual leader of the Ninth Cave
(and the one who initiated Jondalar into the Gift of Pleasure), she meets a fellow healer with whom to share her knowledge and skills.

But as Ayla and Jondalar prepare for the formal mating at the Summer Meeting, there are difficulties. Not all the Zelandonii are welcoming. Some fear Ayla’s unfamiliar ways and abhor her relationship with those they call flatheads and she calls Clan. Some even oppose her mating with Jondalar, and make their displeasure known. Ayla has to call on all her skills, intelligence, knowledge, and instincts to find her way in this complicated society, to prepare for the birth of her child, and to decide whether she will accept new challenges and play a significant role in the destiny of the Zelandonii.

Jean Auel is at her very best in this superbly textured creation of a prehistoric society. The Shelters of Stone is a sweeping story of love and danger, with all the wonderful detail—based on meticulous research— that makes her novels unique. It is a triumphant continuation of the Earth’s Children® saga that began with The Clan of the Cave Bear. And it includes an amazing rhythmic poem that describes the birth of Earth’s Children and plays its own role in the narrative of The Shelters of Stone.


From the Hardcover edition....

The Shelters of Stone opens as Ayla and Jondalar, along with their animal friends, Wolf, Whinney, and Racer, complete their epic journey across Europe and are greeted by Jondalar’s people: the Zelandonii. The people of the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii fascinate Ayla. Their clothes, customs, artifacts, even their homes—formed in great cliffs of vertical limestone—are a source of wonder to her. And in the woman Zelandoni, the spiritual leader of the Ninth Cave (and the one who initiated Jondalar into the Gift of Pleasure), she meets a fellow healer with whom to share her knowledge and skills.

But as Ayla and Jondalar prepare for the formal mating at the Summer Meeting, there are difficulties. Not all the Zelandonii are welcoming. Some fear Ayla’s unfamiliar ways and abhor her relationship with those they call flatheads and she calls Clan. Some even oppose her mating with Jondalar, and make their displeasure known. Ayla has to call on all her skills, intelligence, knowledge, and instincts to find her way in this complicated society, to prepare for the birth of her child, and to decide whether she will accept new challenges and play a significant role in the destiny of the Zelandonii.

Jean Auel is at her very best in this superbly textured creation of a prehistoric society. The Shelters of Stone is a sweeping story of love and danger, with all the wonderful detail—based on meticulous research— that makes her novels unique. It is a triumphant continuation of the Earth’s Children® saga that began with The Clan of the Cave Bear. And it includes an amazing rhythmic poem that describes the birth of Earth’s Children and plays its own role in the narrative of The Shelters of Stone....

The second volume of the astonishing Earth’s Children® series—over 34 million copies sold worldwide

In The Valley of Horses, Ayla, the unforgettable heroine of The Clan of the Cave Bear, sets out on her own odyssey of discovery away from the nurturing adoptive family and friends of the Clan. She is in search of others like herself and in search of love. Driven by her intelligence, her curiosity, and her destiny, she explores where the Clan never dared to travel and encounters a hostile world of awesome mystery, glacial cold, terrifying beasts, and intense loneliness in which survival itself is a constant battle.

Sharing a hidden valley with a herd of steppe horses, Ayla finds a unique friendship with animals as vulnerable as herself and ingeniously discovers the complex skills needed to survive—skills no Clan member was ever able to master. But none of her experiences prepares her for the emotional turmoil she feels when she rescues a young man—the first of the Others she has seen—from almost certain death. Torn between her desire for human companionship and her fear of the unknown Others, she struggles against her deep attraction to the handsome Jondalar. It is Jondalar who teaches her the meaning of true friendship and love.

Once again, Jean M. Auel uses her powerful storytelling talents and her thorough understanding of human nature to take us on an amazing journey into the primordial past, re-creating the prehistoric world as it truly might have been in this compelling and timeless new epic of the dawn of civilization. ...

Esta inolvidable odisea hacia un pasado lejano nos conduce de nuevo a los asombrosos misterios del mundo exótico y primitivo de El clan del oso cavernario, y a Ayla, convertida ahora en una hermosa y valiente jovencita. Cruelmente expulsada por el nuevo lÍder del antiguo Clan que la adoptó cuando era niña, Ayla deja atrás a sus seres queridos y viaja sola a través de un paisaje abierto y desolado, lleno de animales peligrosos y poco poblado, en busca de los Otros, que son altos y rubios como ella. El breve verano le proporciona escaso tiempo para buscarlos, y cuando encuentra un abrigado valle habitado por una manada de robustos caballos esteparios, decide permanecer allÍ y prepararse para el largo invierno glacial que tiene por delante. Con el Clan, Ayla ha aprendido mucho pero no realmente a cazar. Al final se da cuenta de que puede sobrevivir cuando captura un caballo, el cual le da carne y una piel caliente para el invierno, pero el destino le ha deparado un regalo aún mayor: una potranca huérfana con la que desarrolla una afinidad especial. Un invierno se convierte en varios; Ayla descubre una manera más rápida de hacer fuego, y un cachorro de puma herido se une a su peculiar familia; pero sus queridos animales no satisfacen su inquietante necesidad de tener compañÍa humana. Entonces oye el grito de dolor de un hombre. Le salva la vida al alto y apuesto Jondalar, quien le trae un lenguaje hablado y el despertar del amor y el deseo, pero Ayla está dividida entre el temor de abandonar su valle y la esperanza de vivir junto a su propia gente....