Summer Light — Elyse Guttenberg

Spirit Singer and Shaman. Elik was not like the others. She could not sew a seal skin with the tiny stitches that would make a kayak watertight. She could not set a trap as silently as drifting snow. Or throw the weighted strands of a bola into a flock of birds, or predict the weather. But this she could do: She could sing the spirit songs, almost like a shaman.

This was a high calling for young woman born into a poor family with a selfish father and Elik longs for the chance to prove herself. The Real People lived in a world of myth and magic, hunger, enemies and danger. A world where every animal and stone spoke to those who knew how to listen.

Desired by a powerful shaman and in love with a stranger cast out of his home, Elik fights for a way to save her people and reach her destiny. But will the old shaman relinquish his claim? Will the spirits reveal their secrets?