John Turk | The Raven’s Gift

Published: March 22, 2010

Although he’s written two previous books about remarkable adventures in the Earth’s most remote environs, Jon Turk steps off the map in A Raven’s Gift, and travels an ancient, mystic terrain.  

Western thought and magic collide when the chemist, science writer and adventurer finds himself standing naked on one leg, preparing for a healing from a wizened Siberian shaman, Moolynaut.

Throughout this fascinating journey, Turk is both observer and whole-hearted participant as he treks across the Siberian tundra on skis, looking for reindeer herders; chronicles the life of Moolynaut, the shaman who saw the Koryak, her nomadic tribe of reindeer herders, lose their traditions and livelihood under Soviet rule; and visits the Koryak’s Holy Stone.

But when Moolynaut, communing with the spirit of Kutcha, the Black Raven, seems to heal his severely damaged pelvis, science slides into the back seat. And, after losing his beloved wife in an avalanche, Turk returns once again to Moolynaut for healing of a wound that cuts far deeper than flesh.

Along the way, he concludes “that magic is reciprocal and interactive … Moolynaut taut me to live inside a myth, my own personal tapestry of Real World and Dream World, connected by magic that hovered on black outstretched wings.”

Turk, who is also the author of In the Wake of the Jomon and Cold Oceans, resides in the Bitterroot Valley. His new book, published in January by St. Martin’s Press, sells for $27.99 hardcover.