The Fifth Sacred Thing

"There is a place for you at our table if you will choose to join us." It's 2048. After eco-catastrophes and society's meltdown, northern California has built a thriving culture based on respect for the four sacred things: air, fire, water and earth. But when the totalitarian Stewards of the Southlands invade, the people of the north must decide how to fight. Can they resist tyranny without losing their culture of peace? Bird, a musician turned guerrilla, escapes from the Stewards' prison to warn his city. Healer Madrone lies near death from battling the bio weapons of the Stewards with both medicine and magic. She believed Bird dead, but he calls her back to life and love-only to lose her again as she goes south to aid the Resistance and he stays north to prepare for war. The city has no army, no resources for weapons. But his grandmother Maya has a vision: they will greet the soldiers with the offer of a place at the table, and fight with only nonviolence and magic. Bird has seen too much horror to be convinced; still he reluctantly agrees. Yet the strategy demands a level of courage and sacrifice that stretch him to the breaking point...and beyond. Like the hugely successful Avatar, The Fifth Sacred Thing shows us a vision of a positive future-but it brings us back to earth and gives us hope right here. Ultimately, it's a story of love: the love between Bird and Madrone and the even greater love required to put down the gun and trust in the power of that fifth sacred thing, the mystery that links us all.