Here is a saga ofa people who call themselves the Clan of the Cave Bear; how they lived; the animals they hunted; the great totems they revered. But mostly it is the story of Ayla, the girl they found and raised, who was not like them. To the Clan, her fair looks make her different—ugly. And she has odd ways: she laughs, she cries, she has the abil- ity to speak. But even more, she struggles to be true to herself and, with her advanced intelligence, is curious about the world around her. Although Ayla is clearly a mem- ber of the Others, she is nurtured by her adoptive parents, befriended by members of the Clan, and gradually accepted into the family circle. But there are those who would cast her out for her strange, threatening ways.

So the conflict between the ancient Clan, bound by heredity to its traditions, and the girl in its midst, of a newer breed destined to alter the face of the earth, could never be resolved. And it is this same strug- gle that leads Ayla to venture where no Clan woman has ever before dared. Driven by destiny and the will to survive, Avla breaks the forbidden taboo...

With its exquisite detail of a world that truly might have been, The Clan of the Cave Bear is filled with awesome mystery and magic and infused with the drama of human survival. For it is a remarkable epic of one woman's odyssey in that crucial moment of evolution when two races, locked in a death grip, battle for their very existence.