The Dog Master

Thirty-thousand years ago, humanity stood at a turning point. The last glaciation of Europe was about to commence, forcing modern humans out of the trees and onto the steppes, where they would be both predator and prey. Wolves, too, whose fortunes rise and fall with the health of the herds, could sense something different in the wind. When Silex, the young leader of the Wolfen tribe, brings tribute to a clever she-wolf, everything changes. The alpha wolf learns that in times of famine she can turn to man for food, a lesson that her descendants do not forget. Years later in another tribe, the Kindred, a boy is born with a crippled foot. His name, Malcrus (shortened to Mal) translates roughly to "he who brings a curse with his leg and must be put to death." The wily political maneuvers of the boy's mother keep him alive, though eventually he is shunned, unable to join the hunt, and finally banished at a time when a savage tribe of manhunters, the Valley Cohort, have ramped up their campaign of terror. Struggling to survive in the wilderness, Mal saves a wolf cub, a descendant of Silex's she-wolf, naming her "Dog." While Mal desperately misses the girl he has been forbidden to love, he and Dog become inseparable, living together, playing together, and learning to hunt together. But will his bond with Dog be enough to survive in this cold, unforgiving world? The Dog Master by W. Bruce Cameron is an evocative glimpse at prehistory, a heartwarming coming of age saga, and an exciting, imaginative look at the story of the first dog.