The Dawning tells an age-old story of deadly struggle, the heart-rending tale of young love-its aspirations, pain, disappointments and eventual triumph. Ejil and Lada, son and daughter of a Cro-Magnon tribe (on the verge of adulthood) have begun to explore their maturing feelings when an encounter with a clan of Neanderthal hunters tears their Ice Age world apart. Lada is lost and Ejil finds himself embarked on a desperate odyssey to find the mother tribe. The Neanderthals, a pale skinned people, occupied Ice Age Europe for three hundred thousand years. Dark-skinned Cro-Magnons, our direct ancestors, appeared forty-five thousand years ago. Five thousand years later, the Neanderthals had disappeared. What happened when our two ancestral peoples came face to face on the ice bound plains of prehistory? Travel back 33,000 years into our deep past. Set against the backdrop of the fabulous painted caves of Southern France, follow the gripping tale of two young lovers and the sweeping narrative of ancient cultures met in bloody conflict. "This is a fantastic story that will appeal to fans looking for an accurate depiction of prehistoric times and the strife those people faced, or for any reader looking for a thoughtful love story in the midst of it all." --Literary Titan "A fast-paced...compelling journey through the lives and ideas of some of the earliest cultures on Earth." -Kirkus "Richard W. Wise captures the vivid setting, confrontations between very different peoples, and the ancient world of Southwest France in an adventure that immediately grasps reader attention, introducing the atmosphere and adversity of these times...Readers of Jean Auel and libraries seeing interest in this genre of prehistoric fictional settings are in for a treat." -Midwest Book Review "Richard Wise's The Dawning: 31,000 BC does what serious books do, by informing us about the here and now, and about ourselves, by telling us a familiar story from 33,000 years ago, one that's rife with greed, power, tribal opposition and, in the end, what may be the first intimations of humanity in all its glory and tragedy. Backgrounded by the Chauvet Cave paintings, which serve as the metaphor for the emergence of what we might call the soul, the story builds toward a final, endlessly repeatable reckoning that is so embedded in the human experience." -Edward J. Delaney: Author of The Acrobat Richard W. Wise is the author of four books: bestseller SECRETS OF THE GEM TRADE, THE CONNOISSEUR'S GUIDE (originally published in 2001, second revised edition in 2016), THE FRENCH BLUE (2010)-an award-winning historical novel--and the mystery/thriller REDLINED: A NOVEL OF BOSTON (2020) and THE DAWNING: 31,000 BC (2022).. He lives with his wife, Rebekah, and their two cats (Charlie and Sammy) in Charlottesville, Virginia.