About the Book
Cultural and ecological upheaval, birds, science, war, sorcery and shamanism, corporate greed, family, trauma, healing and survival... Flight of the Goose is award-winning fiction set in a traditional village and the wilds of Arctic Alaska, where author Lesley Thomas grew up.
"Amazing... I loved this book (and) am recommending it to everyone I meet."
Sandra Ingerman, author of Soul Retrieval
"One of the best novels of Alaska that I have read... Thomas writes with an unerring knowledge of anthropology and social and environmental issues." Dr. Dorothy Jean Ray, author of A Legacy of Arctic Art
"The story took my breath away. I wept my way through it, identifying profoundly with both protagonists. The author has a fine grasp of the complexity of human relations and culture in such a village. She also writes beautifully. A remarkable book altogether."
Dr. Jean L. Briggs, author of
Never in Anger
1971, the Alaskan Arctic. "It was a time when much was hidden, before outsiders came on bended knee to learn from the elders. Outsiders came, but it was not to learn from us; it was to change us. There was a war and a university, an oil company and a small village, all run by men. There was a young man who hunted geese to feed his family and another who studied geese to save them. And there was a young woman who flew into the world of spirits to save herself..." So relates Kayuqtuq Ugungoraseok, "the red fox". An orphan traumatized by her past, she seeks respect in her traditional Inupiat village through the outlawed path of shamanism. Her plan leads to tragedy when she interferes with scientist Leif Trygvesen, who has come to research the effects of oil spills on salt marshes - and evade the draft. Told from both Kayuqtuq's and Leif's perspectives,
Flight of the Goose is a tale of cultural conflict, spiritual awakening, redemption and love in a time when things were - to use the phrase of an old arctic shaman - "no longer familiar".
"An) exquisite example of storytelling... A gifted writer with a sense of Alaska Native culture and tradition..."
First Alaskans Magazine
"Moving and extremely well-written... Besides shamanic themes... the story addresses many other significant issues - climate change, environmental crisis, and Indigenous rights - and it does so with both artistry and insight."
Shaman's Drum Journal
"What an extraordinary novel... (Thomas) deals with shamanism and sorcery in a very realistic way..."
Sacred Hoop Magazine
"A serious work of modern literature... Portrays a world in which traditional values clash with modern expectations."
Alaska Anthropological Association
"Masterful... Remarkable... Gripping...The authenticity palpable... A joy, a big broad deep river of a book, a work of substance and great beauty of both vision and style... I was moved by the characters and their fates as I have not been by a novel in a long time."
Richard Hoffman,
author of
Half the House About the Author: Lesley Thomas grew up in rural communities in the Alaskan Arctic. She also was raised on on a fishing boat in Southeast Alaska and on a small farm in the Pacific Northwest. Her families of birth and of intermarriage branch from cultures all over the Earth and include hunters and gatherers, scientists and healers. Her interest in shamanism, storytelling and birds began early.
To write Flight of the Goose, she also used her background in ecology and field research on the effects of oil spills on arctic salt marsh.
Thomas has taught at colleges and published poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Although she now lives in Seattle, she returns often to the Far North to visit her ever-growing family and the beautiful land.
