Two Old Women, 20th Anniversary Edition by Velma Wallis

Two Old Women, 20th Anniversary Edition by Velma Wallis

Based on an Athabascan Indian legend passed along for many generations from mothers to daughters of the upper Yukon River Valley in Alaska, this is the suspenseful, shocking, ultimately inspirational tale of two old women abandoned by their tribe during a brutal winter famine.

Though these women have been known to complain more than contribute, they now must either survive on their own or die trying. In simple but vivid detail, Velma Wallis depicts a landscape and way of life that are at once merciless and starkly beautiful. In her old women, she has created two heroines of steely determination whose story of betrayal, friendship, community, and forgiveness "speaks straight to the heart with clarity, sweetness, and wisdom" (Ursula K. Le Guin).

Velma Wallis was born into a family of thirteen children who were all raised with traditional Athabascan values in the vast fur-trapping territory of Fort Yukon, Alaska. She lives in Fairbanks and is a writer and reader.