After the Great Catastrophe, humans have gathered in small nomadic tribes. Ilia, Snow and Aurore, three teenagers, try to survive in a hostile and icy nature.
One day, they are captured by an enemy tribe which reduces them to slavery. Their already difficult life becomes terrifying: they exhaust themselves at the bottom of a coal mine to serve the crazy dreams of their new chief Estelan.
Estelan wishes to create the first sedentary tribe, and to develop agriculture. But when food runs out, he has to find a solution to bring game back to his territory. As a solution, the tribe's shaman proposes to invoke animals by painting them on sacred cave walls. But spirits will not bring animals back...
- A real tour de force by the author, who leads the reader to believe in a dystopic novel, while the novel is set in prehistoric times
- The sacred cave is indeed Lascaux Cave in the South of France.
- Courageous male and female characters who do whatever it takes to fight for their survival.
Caryl Férey is an author and a scriptwriter. He is famous for writing powerful thrillers for adults, that sold one million copies, and that have been awarded many times. His novel Zulu has been adapted into a movie featuring Orlando Bloom and Forrest Whitaker.