Talking to the Ground

In the Summer of 1992, Douglas Preston took his fiancée and her nine-year-old daughter on a 400-mile horseback journey through the deserts of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. They retraced the mythical route of the Navajo deity Naayéé" neizghání o... Read more

In the Summer of 1992, Douglas Preston took his fiancée and her nine-year-old daughter on a 400-mile horseback journey through the deserts of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. They retraced the mythical route of the Navajo deity Naayéé" neizghání on his quest to restore beauty and balance to the Earth. They carried their food and tents on packhorses, camped under the stars, and found their water in the desert. They rode through some of the most isolated places in America, where they learned to depend on each other-and on the hospitality and wisdom of the Navajo people-for their very lives. The book includes unforgettable descriptions of the harsh splendors of Navajo Mountain, Monument Valley, and Canyon de Chelly, as well as lost ancient Puebloan cities and remote canyons rarely visited by white people. Talking to the Ground is a literary achievement of the highest order. But it is also a gripping adventure, one that blends Navajo mysticism, prophecy, and the epic story of creation with the day-by-day account of one family's physical struggle across the deserts and mountains of the Southwest-and their spiritual struggle to find their place in the world. Book jacket. Less