N. Scott Momaday is a novelist, a poet, and a painter. Among the awards he has received for writing are the
Pulitzer Prize and the Premio Letterario Internazionale "Mondello." He is Regent's Professor of English
at the University of Arizona, and he lives in Tucson with his wife and daughter.
Review
"A tour-de-force of clarity and brilliance."
-- San Francisco Chronicle
"An intriguing combination of myth, fiction, and storytelling that demonstrates the continuing power and
range of Momaday's creative vision . . . As Momaday's vision unfolds, the reader recognizes storytelling that is
coninuous and timeless . . .These are magical words. Listen."
-- Washington Post
"Some of the finest writing about the plains I've ever read...The Ancient Child comes as close to
a book-length prose poem as any novel you'll see this year. Put aside your normal expectations and let it have
its way with you, and you'll be in for a real treat."
-- Alan Cheuse, "All Things Considered" (National Public radio)
Submitted by Publishers, July, 2001
Summary
In his first novel since the Pulitzer Prize-winning House Made of Dawn, N. Scott Momaday shapes the ancient
Kiowa myth of a boy who turned into a bear into a timeless American classic. The Ancient Child juxtaposes Indian
lore and Wild West legend into a hypnotic, often lyrical contemporary novel--the story of Locke Setman, known as
Set, a Native American raised far from the reservation by his adoptive father. Set feels a strange aching in his
soul and, returning to tribal lands for the funeral of his grandmother, is drawn irresistibly to the fabled bear-boy.
When he meets Grey, a beautiful young medicine woman with a visionary gift, his world is turned upside down. Here
is a magical saga of one man's tormented search for his identity--a quintessential American novel, and a great
one.
