Promise of the Wolves: A Novel [Paperback]

The first in The Wolf Chronicles trilogy, brilliantly weaving together original research, lovable characters and a dynamic, thoroughly engaging plot,Promise of the Wolvesis a historical adventure story in the tradition ofClan of the Cave BearandWatership Down.

Set 14,000 years ago in what is now Southern Europe,Promise of the Wolvesis told from the point of view of Kaala, a young wolf born of a forbidden, mixed-blood litter. An outcast after her mother is exiled, Kaala struggles to earn her place in her pack. But her world is turned upside down when she rescues a human girl from drowning. Kaala and her young packmates begin hunting and playing with humans—risking expulsion from their pack and banishment from their home in the Wide Valley.

When war between humans and wolves threatens, Kaala learns that she is the last in a long line of wolves charged with keeping watch over humans in order to prevent them from losing touch with nature and thus destroying the world. But to do so she must solve the great paradox of wolfkind: though wolves must always be with humans, humans cannot abide the presence of wolves, and every time the two come together, war ensues. Kaala must choose between safety for herself, her friends, and their human companions and the survival of her pack—and perhaps all of wolf and humankind.DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What do the three rules that guide the covenant of wolves in the Wide Valley -- to stay away from humans as much as possible, to never kill a human unprovoked, and to mate only with wolves inside the valley -- reveal about the tensions between wolves and humans in this region? How did this covenant originally arise, and what roles do the Greatwolves and the krianans play in transmitting this to the packs that inhabit the Wide Valley?
2. 'You must stay and become part of the pack. Do not come for me until then. You have promised.' How does the forced departure of Kaala's motló&