The Dispossessed
By Ursula K. Le Guin
- Release Date: 2015-09-30
- Genre: Literary Fiction
Description
One of the very best must-read novels of all time - with a new introduction by Roddy Doyle
'A well told tale signifying a good deal; one to be read again and again' THE TIMES
'The book I wish I had written ... It's so far away from my own imagination, I'd love to sit at my desk one day and discover that I could think and write like Ursula Le Guin' Roddy Doyle
'Le Guin is a writer of phenomenal power' OBSERVER
'There was a wall. It did not look important - even a child could climb it. But the idea was real. Like all walls it was ambiguous, two-faced. What was inside it and what was outside it depended upon which side of it you were on...'
Shevek is brilliant scientist who is attempting to find a new theory of time - but there are those who are jealous of his work, and will do anything to block him. So he leaves his homeland, hoping to find a place of more liberty and tolerance. Initially feted, Shevek soon finds himself being used as a pawn in a deadly political game.
With powerful themes of freedom, society and the natural world's influence on competition and co-operation, THE DISPOSSESSED is a true classic of the 20th century.
Reviews
absolutely masterful
5By dokytdqplease read this book.More Anthropology, than Science Fiction
4By russlljUrsula Le Guin casts a long shadow. This contemplative book is more a study of social behavior than it is science fiction. The cast of two societies isolated by choice more than distance — by ideologies and opportunity — is an excellent study of how the rational mind can be subjugated by primal need. The passages on time and simultaneity are beautiful and humbling. If I had to guess, I’d say the early writings of Kim Stanley Robinson owe a lot of homage to this giant of 1970’s fiction.