'About this title' may belong to another edition of this title.īook Description Paperback. Wren's (the Phoenix trilogy) post-nuclear world rings true, as do her compelling depictions of the subsistence-level daily life-the triumphs, the losses and the desperation.Ĭopyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. A bitter struggle develops between Mary and a strong-willed young Arkite for the minds of the children, particularly the boy destined to lead the next generation. Years later, when plague strikes the Arkites, Mary agrees to take in the few survivors on condition that she be allowed to educate the children as she sees fit. Mary marries and briefly joins the Arkites but leaves after the leader calls Rachel a witch.

Down the coast is another set of survivors, the Arkites, a fundamentalist group that denies all knowledge not contained in the Bible. As they struggle through the Long Winter following the End, as the nuclear disaster is simply called, their desolation is succeeded by a determination to collect and preserve for a new civilization the great books of Western culture. Writer Mary Hope and Rachel Morrow, a painter, eke out a meager existence at a farm on the Oregon coast.

Unsparing but ultimately hopeful, this elegiac novel, set in the near future, traces the first generations to survive nuclear war and ensuing plagues. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. ' passionate concern with what gives life meaning carries the novel.' ―Library Journal 'Wren's post-nuclear world rings true, as do her compelling depictions of the subsistence-level daily life.' ―Publisher's Weekly An incredibly hopeful meeting, it might seem, until Rachel and Mary realize that the Arkites believe in only one book―the Judeo-Christian bible―and regard all other books as blasphemous. In what little time is available to them, they embark on the project that they hope will offer the gift of knowledge to future generations of survivors―the preservation of the books: those available from their own collections and any they find at nearby abandoned houses.įor years, Mary and Rachel are satisfied to labor at this task in their solitude, but a day comes when they encounter a young man who comes from a group of survivors on the southern coast.

On the Oregon Coast, two women, writer Mary Hope and painter Rachel Morrow, scratch out a minimal existence as farmers. In the 21st Century, civilization is crumbling under the burden of overpopulation, economic chaos, petty wars, a horrific pandemic, and finally, a nuclear war that inevitably results in a deadly nuclear winter. Auel, author of the Earth's Children series ' poignant expression of the durability, grace, and potential of the human spirit.' ―Jean M. In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, two women seek to preserve the small treasury of books available to them - a gift of knowledge and hope for future generations.

A Gift Upon the Shore by M.K. Wren