The perfection of the morning

Through history, dream, vision and the reality of everyday life, Butala has created a rich portrait of her outer landscape - the southwest corner of Saskatchewan near the Montana border - and her inner one, the world of artistic imagination. Butala's home is one of vast grasslands and extreme climates, a territory where native bands first hunted and pioneers later attempted to settle. It is a world of farmers and ranchers who try to survive in spite of drought and cold, failing crops and isolation. It is a world as well of wildlife and endless prairie, of starlit nights and sweetsmelling grasses, where the growing writer is forced to confront not only her own solitude but her struggle to connect with the world around her. Faced with powerful visions and dreams that she at first cannot comprehend, Butala comes to understand that she can find in Nature a guiding force. What can she learn from ancient wisdom that will enable her to make this land her own? Can she ever find a place for herself in a community that is self-sufficient? Does she have the courage to turn her personal crisis both as a woman and as a writer into the stuff of fiction?