THE FORETELLING
Alice Hoffman
Little, Brown and Company
Fiction
ISBN: 0316010189
176 pages

Though Rain is surrounded by her Amazon tribal sisters, she longs for the love and acceptance of a woman she never had --- her own mother. Rain's life began when her mother, Queen Alina, was fiercely attacked by a group of fifty men. Born from the sorrow of rape, the Queen names her Rain and never once graces her daughter with a look, a touch, or her time. But as the queen-to-be, Rain is raised with many guiding hands as she learns every aspect of their all-female tribe, including beekeeping, archery, and Rain's favorite --- the horses.

Horses are an important aspect of their tribe, and Rain devotes herself to becoming the tribe's best horsewoman. When Rain reaches the age of thirteen, she welcomes her own horse, a pure white mare, just as her great-grandmother had owned. Her happiness with the horse is overshadowed by disappointment that her mother refused to present the gift, as is their tradition. Another shadow in Rain's life is her reoccurring dream of a black horse, her tribe's symbol of death.

As Rain grows, she continually encounters choices that conflict with the traditional tribal way of life. When she embarks on her solo journey of first blood, she finds an orphaned bear cub that she adopts and raises as a sister. While practicing with her horse, she befriends a young man who will never be accepted by the tribe. And though she understands the need of war to defend their lands, Rain begins to long for peace. These unconventional thoughts prove dangerous to her position of queen-to-be and cause doubt to her own self-esteem. But the final and most daring deed comes when she is faced with the task of killing her own baby brother, as no males are allowed to live in their society. Will she conform to tradition, or be true to herself?

Talented author Alice Hoffman does an amazing job with THE FORETELLING, filling the pages with colorful descriptions of a long-ago culture built upon the strengths of women. People of all ages, and both sexes, will benefit from reading this pure, heartfelt story about the importance of being oneself. 

   --- Reviewed by Chris Shanley-Dillman, author

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