Now is the Time to Open Your Heart: A Novel
          by Alice Walker

Now is the Time to Open Your Heart or in Spanish, ya es el tiempo para abir tu corazón, is translated from an ancient icaro (Peruvian healing song) sung by a shaman. It is also the title of a new novel by Alice Walker. This quick summer read is a powerful spiritual journey of self-exploration and quest for understanding.

Kate begins her quest late in life, after a few marriages and after her children are grown. Now at 57, after dreaming of dry riverbeds, she leaves her lover, Yolo, to embark on a raft excursion down the Colorado River. She examines recurring dreams, her marriages, her friendships, lovers, and family as her trip progresses down the river. With alternating chapters, Yolo is on his own separate journey to Hawaii where he meets up with a former lover, a Hawaiian woman who is overcome with grief at the loss of her son due to a drug overdose.

As the novel continues, the characters explore how they may have lost their way in life and how to regain their step with the Earth. Part of these journeys take Kate to the Amazon where she partakes of the spiritual “vine of the soul” (aka ayahusca) or Yagé, or “Grandmother” as Kate calls it, which reawaken her perception to the land as Mother.

Part journey, part self-reflection, this accessible novel offers a dream-like exploration of political and spiritual consciousness. Whether you agree with Kate and Yolo’s reflections or not, it’s likely to get you thinking about your own life.