The Raven's Gift

A Scientist, A Shaman, and Their Remarkable Journey Through the Siberian Wilderness

Jon Turk
St. Martin's Press

     In 2000, in the remote Siberian village of Vyvenka, I met a Koryak shaman named Moolynaut.  A year later, Moolynaut entreated the spirit of a great, black raven to help mend my pelvis, which had been previously fractured in a mountaineering accident.  When the healing was complete, I was able to walk without pain. As scientist, I could find no rational explanation for the healing and the experience  irrevocably altered my view of the connectivity between the natural and spiritual worlds.  I traversed the frozen tundra where Moolynaut was born, camping with bands of reindeer herders, and recording stories of their lives and spirituality. Framed by high adventure across the vast and forbidding Siberian landscape, The Raven's Gift is a life-altering vision of the ties between the natural and spiritual realms, informed by one man’s awakening and guided by the ancient Spirit Bird with wide black wings and the power to heal.

Siberia is a harsh, frozen land so you might think that it is a place where survival depends mainly on left-brain logic and pragmatism. But it is here that I learned that magic and dreams underlie strong deeds. It is here that I learned that magic flies around us all time, waiting only to be recognized -- to be realized.

     You can order The Raven's Gift through any online or physical local bookseller, or directly through my store.

Opening Few Lines

Misha and I paddled our kayaks toward shore and then paused when we felt the waves steepen as they touched the sea floor.  Dense, saucer-shaped clouds raced across the Arctic sky, piling up against one another as if there wasn't enough room to dissipate across the vast tundra.

Moolynaut

    Moolynaut was born in a skin tent on the Siberian tundra during the reign of Czar Nicholas II. She not only survived, but maintained her spirituality through the Bolshevik revolution, the entire rise and fall of the Soviet Empire, and the bandito capitalism of Perestroika. She asked me to tell her story, which is the story of all indigenous people, from the jungles of the Amazon and Melanesia to the high Arctic.

     "I wanted to cut my deer free and lead it into the autumn tundra.  I saw myself alone, with the young bull, huddled behind an outcrop of rock as the first snows swept across the land.  I would lead the bull to rich pasture and it would protect me.  We would grow old and strong together.  But this was just a dream.  I was a little girl and my father was on the beach, counting rifles."

---

Praise for The Raven's Gift

From Grant Shilling, Vancouver Sun:

     "With The Raven's Gift, Turk beautifully conveys the raw joy of motion, a terrific sense of adventure, the arduous task of traversing the Arctic tundra and the story of the Vyvenka people. He reminds us that whatever our own initial goals or intentions, the journey always becomes something else, something altogether unexpected."

From Henry Pollack, Co-Winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore:

     "The tension between his own logical scientific background and the mysterious shamanistic wisdom of his healer is at the heart of this wonderfully-told story of Koryak life, and of his own personal transformation."

From Donna Seaman, of the American Library Association:

     "Turk writes with prowess, nerve, and precision…[He] attests to the innate powers of the body, mind and soul that are awakened when we immerse ourselves in "Wild Nature."

From Kirkus Reviews:

     "A moving account worthy of shelving alongside Vladimir Arsenyev’s Dersu Uzala (1923), Barry Lopez’s Arctic Dreams (1986) and other explorations of native ways of life in the Far North."

From Maria Coffey, Author of "Explorers of the Infinite:"

      "Jon Turk is a true explorer, a curious traveler and a gifted writer who shares his remarkable journeys with wisdom, insight and compassion."

From William Fitzhugh, Director, Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution:

     "Harrowing back-country mountain skiing, avalanches, and equally traumatic ski-trekking in the vast Siberian tundra where he searches for the last remnants of an ancient Koryak reindeer-herding people parallel Turk’s personal search for his own inner balance. This is a tale of loss and rebirth brought about by faith, reflection, and trust in a part of the world that has not been visited or described by Westerners for nearly one hundred years."

From Eric Soares, One of the Founders of the Tsunami Rangers:

     "If you are looking for a book from a sea kayaker who thinks like we do and who embarks on a long journey of transformative self-discovery, then you will benefit from reading The Raven’s Gift.  I did."  Click here for the full review.

From My Readers

From Ally Earnest: Missoula, Montana

The message that you have to spread is so imperative, and it needs to get out as quickly as the universe will allow.  We cannot sit back and allow magic to pass on in the face of the buying, selling and killing off of natural and cultural resources- not on our watch!

For more reader feedback, click here.