The Land of Painted Caves by Jean Marie Auel

The Land of Painted Caves is a historical fiction novel by Jean Marie Auel first published in March 2011. The Land of Painted Caves is the sequel to The Shelters of Stone – published 9 years earlier – and is the sixth and final book in the Earth's Children series. The Land of Painted Caves describes Ayla's life among the Zelandonii, and her training to become one of their spiritual leaders.
Thirty thousand years in the making and 31 years in the writing, Jean Marie Auel's overlong and underplotted sixth and final volume in the Earth's Children series (The Clan of the Cave Bear; etc.) finds Cro-Magnon Ayla; her mate, Jondalar; and their infant daughter, Jonayla, settling in with the clan of the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonaii. Animal whisperer and medicine woman Ayla is an acolyte in training to become a full-fledged Zelandoni (shaman) of the clan, but all is not rosy in this Ice Age setting. There are wild animals to face and earthquakes to survive, as well as a hunter named Balderan, who has targeted Ayla for death, and a potential cave-wrecker named Marona. While gazing on an elaborate cave painting (presumably, the Lascaux caverns in France), Ayla has an epiphany and invents the concept of art appreciation, and after she overdoses on a hallucinogenic root, Ayla and Jondalar come to understand how much they mean to one another, thus giving birth to another concept—monogamy. Otherwise, not much of dramatic interest happens, and Ayla, for all her superwomanish ways, remains unfortunately flat. Nevertheless, readers who enjoyed the previous volumes will relish the opportunity to re-enter pre-history one last time. (Summary by Wikipedia)