"A STUNNING PHILOSOPHICAL FANTASY ABOUT LIFE IN THE NOT-SO-DISTANT FUTURE." -- Interview magazine In the tradition of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale comes an epic novel set in twenty-first-century California about love and war, body and spirit, freedom and slavery, and the future of human life itself. THE FIFTH SACRED THING Imagine a world without poverty, hunger, or hatred, where a rich culture honors its diverse mix of races, religions, and heritages, and the Four Sacred Things that sustain life -- earth, air, fire, and water -- are valued unconditionally. Now imagine the opposite: a nightmare world in which an authoritarian regime polices an apartheid state, access to food and water is restricted to those who obey the corrupt official religion, women are the property of their husbands or the state, and children are bred for prostitution and war. The best and worst of our possible futures are poised to clash, and the outcome rests on the wisdom and courage of one clan caught in the conflict. PROVOCATIVE AND MAGICAL, POLITICAL AND SPIRITUAL...AN EXTRAORDINARY BOOK THAT STANDS IN THE GREAT TRADITION OF POLITICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL NOVELS." -- Margot Adler, author of Drawing Down the Moon EXCITING, MAGICAL, AND RICH WITH EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TREASURE MAPS FOR THOSE WHO REALLY CARE ABOUT LIFE AND THE SURVIVAL OF OUR PLANET." -- Merlin Stone, author of When God Was a Woman and Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood