Bella Coola - The Rainforest Brought Them Home Paperback - 2011

A clash between spirit and greed in the rainforest places the lives and loves of indigenous, Euro- and African-American protectors of the planet in jeopardy. Arrests, murders, and hearts torn between love for each other and for the earth create life and death choices. With hearts torn between love for each other and love for the earth, Peter and Sarah, Bobby and Annetta, Anna and Ted, Randy and Aleysha, and Moria and Norval struggle to control their destinies. Bella Coola: The Rainforest Brought Them Home, set in 1998, is a novel that explores the intertwined quests of lifelong friends to find meaning in a world they experience as turned upside down from widespread environmental degradation and spiritual failure. Bella Coola begins with an evocative picture of a man-Peter-entering an ancient Canadian rainforest wilderness to support anti-logging activities. Throughout the first chapter several themes emerge: the restorative quality of human experience in nature, the obligation to protect her, and the sensibility of a man at a critical juncture in life-with respect to both activist commitment and Peter's commitment to Sarah. Peter's dilemma is one that concerns all sensitive humans, and how he tries to resolve this conflict throughout the novel examines the struggle to find meaning in contemporary life.