Cave Walker

by Donelle N. Dreese

How far would you go to save the life of someone you love? Would you face your deepest fears? Would you walk into the dark belly of the bedrock Earth and rest your head on its bouldering fangs? Twenty-four year old Gillian Berry enters the haunting, narrow corridors of the Cave of Desperate Cries to save Neil Foster’s life, but discovers she must save her own.

Cave Walker tells the story of Gillian Berry, a talented breakfast chef who works at her mother’s charming B&B, the Pointed Firs Inn. After Gillian foresees the death of her love interest, Neil Foster, she nervously journeys into the Cave of Desperate Cries in the deep woods of Maine, hoping to save his life. This cave is known to be a holy place where people go for miracles, but many have entered and not returned. The caves take Gillian on an adventure as she unravels the truth behind the “ancestor syndrome” in her family and tries to heal the trauma that has been passed down through five generations of women. When Gillian returns from the caves, she reunites with her estranged father, who is now a permaculture designer and lives in an eco-village. She learns the truth about Neil Foster and her premonition of his death. Her encounters while traveling the caves allow her to finally realize who she really is, a cave walker and a healer.

254 pages, Paperback

Published April 22, 2017

About the author

Donelle Dreese is an author and Associate Professor of English at Northern Kentucky University. Her books include A Wild Turn (Finishing Line), Looking for a Sunday Afternoon (Pudding House), and America’s Natural Places, East and Northeast (ABC-CLIO). Her most recent work, the novel Deep River Burning is forthcoming from WiDo Publishing, and a YA novella, Dragonflies in the Cowburbs, is forthcoming from Anaphora Literary Press. Donelle was recently selected as a semi-finalist for the 2013 Louise Bogan Award for Artistic Merit and Excellence by Trio House Press.

Reviews

[Karen George · Rating 5 out of 5]

"How far would you go to save the person you love?" This is just one of the questions that haunts Gillian Berry, the young woman who is the main character and narrator of Donelle Dreese's eco-novel, "Cave Walker." Gillian's estranged from her father, has a troubled relationship with her mother, and avoids getting close to people. She works as a cook at her mom's Maine B&B, where she meets and falls in love with Neil Foster, a guest who works for the Coast Guard doing important tasks such as cleaning up oil spills. Gillian has a vision of Neil's drowning death. All the women in her family possess this "knowing."

Gillian's grandmother Celica, a storyteller nicknamed "Old Swan," tells Gillian about the Cave of Desperate Cries, where people go for help. Despite Gillian's claustrophobia, she embarks on a journey to try to save Neil's life. In the process, she begins the discovery of who she is—a cave walker and a healer—who tries to heal her family's ancestral pain.

In this moving story, we travel with Gillian to meet ancestors and even the photographer Dorothea Lange, to such times and places as the ocean and mountains, The Allagash Wilderness, Perryville, Kentucky during the Civil War, the dust bowl, and Halo Cave in the Maldives.

Donelle Dreese's "Cave Walker" is full of stunning imagery, emotional intensity, and a deep connection and reverence for the natural world.