Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun - Softcover

Wallis, Velma

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060977280 ISBN 13: 9780060977283

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 1997

Synopsis

With the publication of Two Old Women, Velma Wallis firmly established herself as one of the most important voices in Native American writing. A national bestseller, her empowering fable won the Western State Book Award in 1993 and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book Award in 1994. Translated into 16 languages, it went on to international success, quickly reaching bestseller status in Germany. To date, more than 350,000 copies have been sold worldwide.

Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun follows in this bestselling tradition. Rooted in the ancient legends of Alaska's Athabaskan Indians, it tells the stories of two adventurers who decide to leave the safety of their respective tribes. Bird Girl is a headstrong young woman who learned early on the skills of a hunter. When told that she must end her forays and take up the traditional role of wife and mother, she defies her family's expectations and confidently takes off to brave life on her own. Daagoo is a dreamer, curious about the world beyond. Longing to know what happens to the sun in winter, he sets out on a quest to find the legendary "Land of the Sun." Their stories interweave and intersect as they each face the many dangers and challenges of life alone in the wilderness. In the end, both learn that the search for individualism often comes at a high price, but that it is a price well worth paying, for through this quest comes the beginning of true wisdom.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Velma Wallis, author of the award-winning TWO OLD WOMEN, brings forth another story from the Athabaskans of Alaska. In a cold, harsh country where the sun disappears for much of the long winter, Indians and Eskimos struggle against nature and one another to survive. Against this stark landscape, Wallis skillfully interweaves the stories of two rebels. Bird Girl, an independent young Indian woman, defies her family's expectations by refusing to become a traditional wife and mother. Instead she chooses to brave life on her own as a hunter, risking starvation, isolation, and attacks by her people's enemies, the Eskimos. Along the way she meets Daagoo, a restless young dreamer who leaves behind his homeland to journey souht in search of the legendary Land of the Sun. Readers will be captivated by this profound myth about two young people who wander far from their culture's deeply held traditions and eventually must find a way to come home again.

About the Author

Velma Wallis is one in a family of thirteen children, all born in the vast fur-trapping country of Fort Yukon, Alaska, and raised with traditional Athabascan values. A writer and avid reader, she lives in Fairbanks.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0060977280
• ISBN 13: 9780060977283
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224