The Game Hunters

A climate crisis in the Ice Age.

A cold snap leads to an unrelenting glacial. For our prehistoric ancestors survival is threatened. Food gets harder to find in the frigid lands of Central Asia.

Yet the tribes living near the Altai Mountains have found a refuge. A river and a lake allows some plants and trees to survive, herds come to graze - prey to hyenas and wolves.

And man!

Hunting together is tribal law. Shiga, failed his Initiation, ran away from First Hunt. Law-breakers are exiled but Shiga, expert Carver is offered a last chance.

He will also lose Urm, his childhood hearth-mate to Bruj. Unless he hunts with the tribe.

Urm is a healer and path-breaker.

Gathering plants in the Growing season gets harder. Urm discovers she can grow plants with warmth and water - in secret. For it’s forbidden to tamper with Earth Mother’s children. But in that harshening climate Urm foresees starvation.

She also prays Shiga will hunt big game. Otherwise, she must accept Bruj.

Can Shiga and Urm forge new ways of living?

A historical novel for young adults The Game Hunters is based on research and findings of Asian prehistoric people in Southern Siberia. Set in the Last Glacial Maxim when human populations struggled to survive; survival was only made possible by cooperation, courage and the forging of new ways.

The Game Hunters is a story of innovation and acceptance, love and death in Ice Age Asia.

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"An intriguing account of prehistoric life. Truly stimulating! To hunt or to heal... A must-read to understanding our roots from an eco-critical perspective." -- Dr. Ilgım Veryeri Alaca, Professor, Koç University, Istanbul