In the tradition of Calvino's Italian Folktales, Greg Sarris, author
of the award-winning novel Grand Avenue, turns his attention to his
ancestral homeland of Sonoma Mountain in Northern California. In 16
interconnected original stories, the twin crows Question Woman and
Answer Woman take us through a world unlike yet oddly reminiscent of our
own: one that blooms bright with poppies, lupines, and clover; one in
which Water Bug kidnaps an entire creek; in which songs have the power
to enchant; in which Rain is a beautiful woman who keeps people's
memories in stones. Inspired by traditional Coast Miwok and Southern
Pomo creation tales, these stories are timeless in their wisdom and
beauty, and because of this timelessness their messages are vital and
immediate. The figures in these stories ponder the meaning of
leadership, of their place within the landscape and their community. In
these stories we find a model for how we can all come home again. At
once ancient and contemporary, How a Mountain Was Made is equally at
home in modern letters as the ancient story cycle. Sarris infuses his
stories with a prose stylist's creativity and inventiveness, moving
American Indian literature in a new and emergent direction.
