DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

The Dispossessed

Ursula K Le Guin author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Orion Publishing Co

Published:3rd Oct '19

Should be back in stock very soon

The Dispossessed cover

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.

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 * THE TIMES *
An extraordinary work ... [Le Guin] created a working society in exquisite detail ... a fully realised hypothetical culture [as well as] living breathing characters who are inevitable products of that culture -- Baird Searles
A well told tale signifying a good deal; one to be read again and again * THE TIMES *
A deeply imagined work of art * Encyclopedia of Science Fiction *
Le Guin's book ... is so persuasive that it ought to put a stop to the writing of prescriptive Utopias for at least 10 years * NEW YORK TIMES *
[Le Guin had] the heart of a poet who knew all too well the difference between miracle and eureka, revelation and revolution * PUBLISHERS WEEKLY *
Le Guin's storytelling is sharp, magisterial, funny, thought-provoking and exciting, exhibiting all that science fiction can be * Empire *
Le Guin is a writer of phenomenal power * OBSERVER *

  • Short-listed for John W Campbell Award 1975 (UK)

ISBN: 9781473228412

Dimensions: 196mm x 128mm x 24mm

Weight: 240g

336 pages