Stand on the Sky

Erin Bow

For centuries, Kazakh nomads have ridden their horses into the mountains to adopt eaglets that become their hunting partners. This is treacherous business: It’s bitterly cold. The eagles are protected by their fiercely vigilant mothers. And the nests are set in jagged perches that do not invite visitors.

In this touching YA coming-of-age story, our heroine Aisulu is determined to take her place among that tradition to become the first female eagle hunter in her family — and to compete in the annual Golden Eagle Festival.

The book opens with a dangerous caper that, by the time it’s resolved, has left Aisulu’s much-beloved brother seriously injured and has placed an orphaned female eaglet in her care. The story traces the relationship between the girl and her eagle, taking us inside the small, vital details of ger life and eagle training.

We see how Aisula catches mice for the eaglet’s meals until the bird is old enough to hunt. We join her for daily chores: lining up the goats for milking, carrying seemingly endless buckets of water and milk back and forth. It’s a physically demanding life, but the community bonds are warm — and necessary. No one can survive in this environment alone.

As the trust between girl and eagle deepens, Aisulu’s relationships with other family members shift, too. While her parents and brother begin to feel out of reach, surprising kinship among the clan takes their place. It’s an exhilarating, confusing time for our young heroine and an insightful look at how nomadic life plays out in modern communities.

Will our heroine triumph? Or will family complications dash her dreams of becoming an eagle hunter? Author Erin Bow does a remarkable job keeping Aisulu’s fate an open question until the last possible satisfying moment.

Her father looked down at her, and seemed at once to be trying not to smile and trying not to cry. ‘But — there’s never been a girl, Dulat. Not in a thousand years. Girls don’t become eagle hunters.’

‘That’s not true,’ said the Fox Wife. ‘There have been women with eagles since ancient days. In Mongolia, in Kazakhstan, in Kyrgyzstan, in China, in Russia. Wherever the eagles fly and our peoples live sky-close to them, for thousands of years, there have been women.’

‘Though it’s true there have not been many in Olgii City,’ said Dulat, taking his wife’s hand…

‘Things change sometimes,’ said Aisulu. She was not really thinking, but she heard herself speaking, heard the words fall from her lips like gold coins. The grief and the new hope, pulling her shoulders back. Her chest felt open, and her breath felt deep. Her heart was beating. ‘Sometimes things change.’ — Erin Bow

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