The Spirit Walker

By Paul Sullivan

$12.00
Order Code: 4434
Class sets 10 or more paperback books: $10.00 each
Class set order code: 4434S

During their first encounter, the elephant charged the poacher who had just slaughtered his herd, injuring the man gravely, but not before the man put a bullet next to the elephant’s heart. One day a mysterious old African named Masuku offers to find the elephant for the poacher, Teich, so he can settle the score. Teich eagerly agrees, but Masuku has an unexpected underlying motive.

Description

The first time they encountered each other, the old bull elephant had just come upon his herd, freshly slaughtered by a poacher with an unrelenting desire to kill anything that can bring a profit. The elephant had charged the man who was still butchering the cows and calves, had caught him unprepared, and had injured him gravely—but not before the man managed to get off a rifle shot, planting a bullet deep in the elephant’s chest near his heart.

The poacher, Teich, has spent the ensuing years burning with the hatred of revenge. He is consumed with finding and killing the elephant, both to settle the score and to harvest the old bull’s huge ivory tusks. Teich is unkempt, undignified, and ruthless. He enjoys killing, and little else. His hired man, Tebe, does not feel the same. For Tebe, the work is a way to make money so that he can provide for his beloved wife Kopela. Kopela, however, would rather he stop poaching. The risk is not worth the reward, and she has become alarmed at the vast numbers of animals that are disappearing from the African landscape. Soon there will be none.

One day a strange man comes to see them. Masuku, the old African, explains that he can find Teich’s elephant. Teich is immediately interested, but Kopela begs Tebe not to go with them. Masuku frightens her, and recent events have cast ominous shadows over the entire business. But Tebe shrugs off her fears, and he sets out with Teich and the old man to find the old elephant so that they can end the saga once and for all. What he does not know, however, is Masuku’s underlying motive. Masuku communes with nature. He sees the thread of life in all things, and he silently works to bring the two adversaries together in order to allow nature to bring things back into its just pattern.

The Spirit Walker is a heart-wrenching, gut-wrenching look at the evils of poaching and the loss of entire species for profit, but it is also an insightful tribute to the grandeur of nature and the majesty of the African elephant, the Earth’s largest and most powerful land animal. Paul Sullivan writes with an unblinking eye that sees the world as it is, as it could be, and as it will be if we do not step forward to save it.

Details

Category
Paul Sullivan Novels
Ages
13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Grades
8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Subjects
Novels
Pages
171
ISBN
978-0-89824-443-4
Order Code
4434