The Clan of the Cave Bear

Recommended to my by my father. I love, love, loved it.

This is a story about a young, blond girl who gets separated from her family during a devastating earthquake and is found a raised by a primitive tribe that calls themselves "The Clan of the Cave Bear". The young girl, Ayla, has no memory of her five small years on Earth and the Clan becomes her family.

The Clan, ruled by men, views this young girl as ugly, unattractive, and one of the "Others". They hunt, they heal (all with the help of their natural surroundings), and they learn to accept her but through it all there is a lot of drama, misunderstandings, and a learning curve for both sides (ex: they speak with their hands, don't smile or laugh and don't use their voices...so when Ayla does they don't know how to handle it).

Ayla is definitely one of my favorites fictional heroines ever. No description I did of the book could even come close to explain how well written, researched (the author is an anthropologist and it shows), and deep this book gets into the story of survival,  strength, love and hope.  So much happens in this book that will also make the reader angry...but the ways of one type of society different from ours still doesn't make sense to us to this day.

This is a timeless story that I think has been forgotten (it was released in the 80's) I say put this one on your bucket list. Also..its the first in a series of five!