Kayla Rae Whitaker Knihy

A dazzling story of female friendship, the cost of a creative life, and the secrets that can undo us. At a private East Coast college, two outsiders meet in art class. Mel is brash, brilliant, and wild. Sharon is shy, lovelorn, but ambitious. Together, they become an award-winning animation duo, living and working in Brooklyn, making short autobiographical films. But when the pair decide to base a new project on a long-buried childhood encounter, it forces them to examine the relationships they have with their families, lovers, and even each other.

This is Kay Whitaker's spellbinding account of her "reluctant" apprenticeship to Domano and Chea Hetaka, two charismatic shamans from the Amazon Basin who come to teach her -- a young homemaker -- to be a Kala Keh nah seh, a builder of webs of balance," and to hand down the ancient wisdom of their people. In spite of her doubts and fears, Whitaker finds the balance and harmony she was destined to know.