Dr. Push Foster takes a 2-year job at the Lukachukai Health Station with no thought that he will soon be plunged into a medical mystery and crisis: the outbreak of a pneumonia-like illness whose terrible swiftness makes it almost impossible to treat. And most mysteriously all the victims have been Navajo, and young. With contacts at the CDC in atlanta, push calls in all the expert help he can. But the scientific answers to what is eventually identified as the rodent-borne hanta virus are unsatisfying, even irrelevant, to the Navajo, who believe something far more frightening is at work--an imbalance with far-reaching effects. And ultimately push himself comes to see the limits of what doctors can accomplish, and the liberating power of accepting other forces at work in the world. Full of wonderful imagery and scenes both moving and frightening--a hand-trembler trying to save a young life, a skinwalker changing form on a lonely road at twilight--this is a colorful and finally gripping novel of modern plagues and timeless evil.


From the Hardcover edition.