Earth - (Elemental Journey) by Caroline Helen Allen (Paperback)

About the Book

There is no place for a thirteen-year-old's visionary "gift" in the bloody reality of her subsistence farming family in rural Missouri.

Book Synopsis

Winner of the 2015 Independent Publishers' Gold Medal for Best Midwest Fiction. In rural Missouri in the 1970s, thirteen-year-old Pearl Swinton has just had her first mystical vision. There is no place for Pearl's "gift" in the bloody reality of subsistence farming and rural poverty. As her visions unfold, she must find her way in a family and a community that react with fear and violence. When Pearl discovers that her Aunt Nadine has a similar gift, she bicycles across the state to find her. That trip unexpectedly throws Pearl into a journey to save her runaway sister and sends her into a deep exploration of herself, her visions, and her visceral relationship to the earth. Told with fierce lyricism, Earth is a story about the importance of finding one's own truth and sense of self in dire circumstances and against the odds. It is also a story about the link between understanding ourselves and our relationship with the earth. In this first of the five-book Elemental Journey Series that will follow Pearl across continents and into adulthood, Caroline Allen introduces a form of storytelling that is unflinching in its honesty, filled with compassion, and underscored with originality. Includes a thought-provoking Book Group Guide.

Review Quotes

"Caroline Allen winds her writing into dark places where thorns will scratch at your skin and your blood will boil. The captivating detail of her writing moves you so deeply you'll find yourself questioning your own existence. Is your story your own?" - April Davis, Writer's Edit Magazine

"I just finished reading this powerful book--a life utterly unfamiliar to me. But what a strong character Pearl is! I was with her every step of the way. Gripping, sensitive, and uncomfortable many times, but I always cared about Pearl. It's powerful and I loved it. A great read.

- Lucy E. Pond, author of The Metaphysical Handbook

"This was a novel I wanted to read from the first sentences: 'I was thirteen the day of my awakening. It was a weeding day. The heat stung the skin, boiled the brain.' It assumes we all are ripe for awakening, that awakening is a fact of life, that it is both beautiful and brutal, and that our lives depend on not only surviving it but believing it." - Polly Buckingham, author of The Expense of a View