The White Bone Paperback | Pages: 336 pages

Present Books In Pursuance Of The White Bone

Original Title:	The White Bone
ISBN:	0312264127 (ISBN13: 9780312264123)
Edition Language:	English
Literary Awards:	Scotiabank Giller Prize Nominee (1998), Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize Nominee (1998)

Chronicle Toward Books The White Bone

A thrilling journey into the minds of African elephants as they struggle to survive.
If, as many recent nonfiction bestsellers have revealed, animals possess emotions and awareness, they must also have stories. In "The White Bone," a novel imagined entirely from the perspective of African elephants, Barbara Gowdy creates a world whole and separate that yet illuminates our own.
For years, young Mud and her family have roamed the high grasses, swamps, and deserts of the sub-Sahara. Now the earth is scorched by drought, and the mutilated bodies of family and friends lie scattered on the ground, shot down by ivory hunters. Nothing-not the once familiar terrain, or the age-old rhythms of life, or even memory itself-seems reliable anymore. Yet a slim prophecy of hope is passed on from water hole to water hole: the sacred white bone of legend will point the elephants toward the Safe Place. And so begins a quest through Africa''s vast and perilous plains-until at last the survivors face a decisive trial of loyalty and courage.
In The White Bone, Barbara Gowdy performs a feat of imagination virtually unparalleled in modern fiction. Plunged into an alien landscape, we orient ourselves in elephant time, elephant space, elephant consciousness and begin to feel, as Gowdy puts it, "what it would be like to be that big and gentle, to be that imperiled, and to have that prodigious memory."

List Epithetical Books The White Bone

Title	:	The White Bone
Author	:	Barbara Gowdy
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Special Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 336 pages
Published	:	June 3rd 2000 by Picador USA (first published 1998)
Categories	:	Fiction. Animals. Cultural. Africa. Canada

Rating Epithetical Books The White Bone

Ratings: 3.79 From 3083 Users | 338 Reviews

Assess Epithetical Books The White Bone

Not an easy, or a fun, but a deep, important, thought-provoking read. Gowdy attempted the impossible feat of getting into the head of another creature--an elephant. This already is a huge stretch and its incredibly difficult to do it well, and to do it in a way that the reader feels comfortable taking the narrator seriously. Gowdy worked extremely hard to get out of her own head and into another being's umwelt. She did an almost miraculous job. She obviously did a formidable amount of research

I found myself thinking about this book when I wasn't reading it. Definitely not a light book - but very interesting. Written from the perspective of several different elephants. Author does an excellent job of creating a culture and language that is both believable and easy to follow. Very moving content.

This book was a book club selection. I couldnt make it to the book club because I was out of town, but still attempted to read it regardless. I got 1/3 of the way through before returning it to the library (and most of the reading was done because I was sitting on a plane with limited options on how to spend my time). I found it hard to get into, especially at the beginning I wasnt able to get into an elephant frame of mind (although as I started to settle into it, it was kind of fascinating)

A beautiful, haunting, complex, and devastating novel. I admit that it took me about 20 pages to truly get into this book, because so much information about the way the elephants think and the terms they use needed to be digested. The shifting third person narrative perspective (Mud- an orphaned elephant with a lame leg living with her adopted herd, Date Bed- a clever calf who is in many ways Mud's best friend, and Tall Time- a bull who is revered for his knowledge of nature's signals and omens)

It took a while for this chisel of a book to crack the nut of my head. I had to start it three times because the perspective was so strange, and grim. But on the third try I was enthralled. This book put me inside a different way of thinking. I treasured returning to this book and comprehending the revelations on nearly every page -- of the fact that there was a different way of observing things. So often I enjoy books that are brilliant executions of standard plots or formulas, like God Bless

Amazing book. An adventure, drama, heartbreak, hope, the struggle of the spirit to survive and thrive all told from the perspective of elephants. Don't be put off by that if you are not an animal lover or have a particular affinity for elephants, like I do. They are incredibly amazing, complex, extremely intelligent creatures, but this book is so beautifully written with such a compelling story that anyone who appreciates good literary ficton will enjoy this a great deal.

This is an absolutely fantastic novel. The fact that the author managed to even *attempt* to get into the mind of an African elephant is astonishing. The work itself, however, an epic world of myth, belief, hope, and sacrifice, is what makes it more stunning. And beyond comprehension. In the top five books I've ever read.