The Last Human Bear
A Novel
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Heyday Books
Publishing:30th Jul '26
£21.99
This title is due to be published on 30th July, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
"Lush and gripping." —Rebecca Solnit
"It's revelatory on every page." —Dave Eggers
"The grand return of a master storyteller." —Peter Maravelis, City Lights Booksellers
An epic story of curses, love, hard-won independence, and healing—and the first novel in 28 years by a widely acclaimed Native writer.
Mary Hatcher lives with a curse—or is it a power that could make her life whole? A Native Pomo woman who comes of age in 1930s California, Mary keeps trying to make sense of her enigmatic family. Strange rumors spread about her. Her stepmother may have taught her how to become a Human Bear, a shapeshifter who can menace and poison enemies. Two men may love her—or love who they think she is. A mystery even to herself, Mary learns to pass between Native and white societies, tenaciously carving her own path as an independent woman. But as she explores love and desire, family inherited and chosen, and the secrets of the natural world, one question gnaws at her: Is she fated to do harm?
Wry and richly lyrical, The Last Human Bear follows Mary from the Great Depression to the twenty-first century, when she commits a haunting final act. Inspired by the Native women elders who shaped Greg Sarris in his youth, it is the triumphant and revelatory return of an eminent novelist. With illustrations by Obi Kaufmann.
Praise for The Last Human Bear:
"This powerful novel by Greg Sarris is about one character, one place, one time, one curse, but it’s also about all the stormy impulses in any human heart that undermine love, joy, connection, all the ways that loss and privation lead to loss and privation. But it is itself lush and gripping as it follows one Native Californian from early girlhood to late old age, walking her own path through a changing world." —Rebecca Solnit, author of Men Explain Things to Me
"The Last Human Bear is a very complex, very moving meditation on personal origins and family lore, illuminating a part of California’s history that’s rarely seen in literature. It’s revelatory on every page.” —Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
"A page into The Last Human Bear, Greg Sarris writes, 'The heart has no limits.' Thus begins an exploration of the heart—its longings, aches, grievances, regrets, hates, and loves. Sarris has given us a love letter to the western landscape and the people who call it home." —Lisa See, author of Daughters of the Sun and Moon and Lady Tan’s Circle of Women
"The Last Human Bear is a love story, a tale of place and of a bold-voiced woman whose life has been misunderstood, and a vaulting American yarn that carries you along like a leaf on the wind." —John Freeman, author of California Rewritten
"Sarris has a master touch that is both delicate and vivid. The Last Human Bear is filled with this grace. This novel is so much more rich and complicated than a few words can express and it is so very worth it to discover that in the reading." —Sheryl Cotleur, Copperfield's Books
"The grand return of a master storyteller, The Last Human Bear is a riveting journey into the intricacies of passion and how the legacies of the past can haunt us. Greg Sarris courageously explores the ethical struggles that emerge from genuine self exploration and offers a timely meditation on the possibilities for healing and reconciling with one's nature." —Peter Maravelis, City Lights Booksellers
ISBN: 9781597147071
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
400 pages