Pillar of the Sky - Softcover

HOLLAND, CECELIA

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345333365 ISBN 13: 9780345333360

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1986

Synopsis

From deep in the mists of time, Cecelia Holland has drawn forth this tale of life on the Salisbury Plain, among the Stone Age Britons who built Stonehenge. It is the story of hunters, of kings and matriarchs, and of one outcast boy who becomes a shaman, burning with a vision that will take shape in mighty pillars of stone.

About this title

About the Author:

Cecelia Holland has been writing since she was 12, and spends a good deal of every day writing. She chose to write historical fiction, because, being 12, she had precious few stories of her own, and history seemed to her then, as it still does, an endless fund of material.

She was encouraged to write by the poet William Meredith and the short story writer David Jackson. Her first novel was The Firedrake, and it was published by Atheneum in 1966. Since then, Cecelia has written a lot, read a lot, and raised three daughters. She lived in northern California, in the country. Once a week, she teaches creative writing at Pelican Baystate Prison in Crescent City, and, every day, she takes care of a small menagerie of little animals.

Review:

"A first-class storyteller, Holland convinces the reader that only someone obsessed with building a gateway to the heavens could have created something as incredible as Stonehenge." --People

"[Holland] is at all times a superb storyteller, and her talents have never been better displayed. She not only re-creates a prehistoric people with every aspect of their life opened up for us; she also makes us share that life." --Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Politics in prehistoric times is Holland's theme in this intelligently and lushly developed saga. [Pillar of the Sky] moves with great energy but without neglecting rich detail; the dim past springs to buoyant and believable life." --Booklist

"With her engrossing narrative, some nicely developed characters, and excellent descriptions of the primitive lifestyle, Holland succeeds in stretching our imagination; she has breathed new life into those forty-ton monoliths that for all these centuries have been standing so mutely on the Salisbury Plain." --Los Angeles Herald Examiner

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0345333365
• ISBN 13: 9780345333360
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 534