"This book, which marks Jean Auel's personal transition from electronic technicial to full-time writer, tells the tale of a band of prehistoric hunter-gatherers living on the Crimean Peninsula near the shores of the Black Sea...She has written an exciting, imaginative and intuitively solid book." "Auel manages to make all her characters fascinating and for the most part convincing, no easy feat, since unlike the foundling Ayla they speak with hand gestures, make abstractions rarely, and neither laugh nor cry...We find ourselves cheering when Ayla executes her daring rescues..."