The white bone - Barbara Gowdy

A classic, moving quest of elephants, memory and the will to survive. Mud is an infant elephant, orphaned at birth and blessed with visionary powers. She and her adoptive family roam the plains of east Africa in search of water and food. At a crowded watering hole in a bad drought, ivory poachers find them and kill, or drive off, almost all of the elephant cows and their young. Mud, now an adolescent and pregnant with her first calf, sets out with the wounded and traumatized survivors in search of the injured. Guided by visions, memories and hallucinations as much as their incredible sense of smell, the ruined herd hears rumours of A Safe Place and the White Bone that can lead them there. The quest becomes one of endurance, sacrifice and, ultimately, transcendence, as the elephants struggle for their own lives and the continuation of their kind. Strikingly original, The White Bone takes Gowdy's talent for inspired characterization to new heights, allowing us to see the world afresh through the eyes of a constantly persecuted, and yet infinitely gentle species.