In this "moving...unpredictable and absorbing debut" (Publishers Weekly), Garth Stein brilliantly invokes his Native American heritage and its folklore to create an electrifying supernatural thriller.

When Jenna Rosen abandons her comfortable Seattle life to revisit Wrangell, Alaska, it's a wrenching return to her past. Long ago the home of her Native American grandmother, Wrangell is located near the Thunder Bay resort where Jenna's young son, Bobby, drowned two years before. There, determined to lay to rest the aching mystery of his death, she hears whispers of Tlingit legends that tell of powerful, menacing forces -- and discovers a frightening new possibility about Bobby's fate.

Warned by a practicing shaman against disturbing the legendary kushtaka -- soul-stealing predators that stalk the netherworld between land and sea, the living and the dead -- Jenna turns to Eddie, a local fisherman, to help her separate fact from myth. But she can't deny her protective motherly instincts, and Jenna's quest for the truth about her son -- and the strength of her beliefs -- is about to pull her into a terrifying, life-changing abyss....
On impulse, Jenna Rosen leaves the party she and her real estate developer husband, Robert, are attending in Seattle, takes his BMW and drives north to Bellingham. Again on impulse, she hops on the ferry to the Alaskan town where her Tlingit Indian grandmother lived and died. But there's more than impulse at work here: Jenna and Robert's 5-year-old son, Bobby, drowned in Alaska just two years ago, and something is drawing Jenna back to the scene. On the ferry, she's given a carved silver charm of a Tlingit spirit called a kushtaka, a stealer of souls. "Tlingits don't have good and evil," a local shaman explains, telling the story of how the spirit known as Raven gave the world the sun, moon, and stars by stealing them from someone else. As Jenna learns more about the kushtakas, helped by this very sophisticated shaman and an understanding fisherman, she begins to believe that her son's soul is being held captive by these spirits, as revenge for her husband's greed. Garth Stein's persuasive prose draws us into a book that mixes fantasy with tragedy and the natural human desire for closure.

Customer Rating:
Summary: A Bit Disappointing
Comment: Having absolutely loved Garth Stein's, The Art of Racing in the Rain CD, I wanted to read his 1998 debut novel: Raven Stole the Moon. It was good, but honestly, not my cup of tea.

About the book.....
Two years ago in a remote Alaskan village, Jenna Rosen's five-year-old son, Bobby, fell out of a boat and drowned, and Jenna was unable to save him. Unable to come to terms with her grief and sinking deeper and deeper into depression, Jenna leaves her husband in Seattle and returns to the site of the tragedy. Hoping to get some closure, once there, she encounters an assortment of sinisterly quirky characters and learns much about the Indian part of her heritage. She soon comes to a startling conclusion.

Since I have never been one to enjoy myth, legend, or fantasy, this story started to lose me when its focus involved: Tlingit Legend---that the kushtaka are shape-shifting soul stealers who inhabit a kind of twilight region between the living and the dead. To me, I would have preferred that the story stay focused, more on grieving and coming to terms with loss.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Haunting tale, created by a master story teller.
Comment: Garth Stein's haunting tale of such spiritual depth is an amazing reading experience. He takes us on a journey that is gripping and thought provoking. The author is a talented story teller, with a "voice" that "speaks" to you, as he weaves a novel with unique characters. He literally places us in the Alaskan wilderness, surrounded by a landscape of supernatural spirits and symbols. A must read.
Arlene Millman
author of Boomerang-A Miracle Trilogy

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Subtle, sweet and extremely satisfying
Comment: A recent lovely weekend spent reading How Evan Broke His Head led me to find a copy of Garth Stein's earlier book, Raven Stole the Moon. This book is more modern in tone than Evan, more an indulgence in pure story-telling and for me, even more of a delight.
The plot is outlined in the Amazon review above-a woman suffering from toxic grief at the loss of her son, abandons her husband and heads north from Seattle to the spot near a fishing village where the boy disappeared in the ocean. The action is resoundingly spiritual, tutelary beings and vengeful kushtaka spirits appear: but the setting and the characters are remarkably textured and real. Anyone who's ever marvelled at the material culture of Tlingit or Kwakiutl Indians will detect the spirit of their culture in both the spiritual and material dimensions of this very elegant tale.
(For a photographic sense of the environment, rent Johnny Depp's Dead Man)


Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine and the forthcoming bang-BANG from Kunati Press.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Stein does for Alaska what King did for Colorado
Comment: Not since I read The Shining have I had the shivers running up and down my spine like I did with this book! An excellent thrill ride from beginning to end. Mr. Stein is a master craftsman when developing his characters, and I was amazed at his ability to shift from both the male and female perspective.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Combination Mystery Thriller and Culture Lesson
Comment: A woman of Native Alaskan blood is drawn back to the place of her only son's murder, where her marriage, as well as her belief system are challenged. Garth Stein weaves Tlingit legend with mystery thriller to create a story that is gripping and, at times disturbing. He is not afraid to make his characters unsympathetic, which adds to the realism of his story. Being one half Tlingit drew my interest to this mystery, but Garth Stein's ability as a novelist kept it until it's climactic finish.

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