Now is the Time to Open Your Heart Paperback / softback

'A modern take on the Odyssey in which it is Penelope who wanders far from home before returning to her Odysseus' Sunday TelegraphKate has always been a wanderer.

A well-published author, married several times, she has lived a life full of exploration.

Now, as she begins to feel the first ravages of age, she wants to find a new sense of meaning.

She leaves her lover Yolo on a journey down the Colorado river - a journey that will force her to re-explore her past and her future, and her connection to the real world.

On her travels she meets shamans and the mysterious spiritual world of the native Indian. Yolo too begins his own journey as he travels to Hawaii and meets a former lover whose life is being destroyed by the excesses of American society.

As Kate and Yolo gain shifting insights into the world around them, will their paths diverge or lead back to each other?

This is a novel very much in tune with the zeitgeist - Alice Walker argues that we need to look inwards and develop a more open attitude in order to combat the pervasive climate of fear and distrust.