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Book Cover for: The Wind's Twelve Quarters: Stories, Ursula K. Le Guin

The Wind's Twelve Quarters: Stories

Ursula K. Le Guin

Reader Score

81%

81% of readers

recommend this book

"Splendidly intricate and hugely imaginative tales." --Newsweek

A striking new 50th anniversary edition of Ursula K. Le Guin's extraordinary short story collection

The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the National Book Award, the Kafka Award, and the Pushcart Prize, Ursula K. Le Guin is renowned for her lyrical writing, rich characters, and diverse worlds. The Wind's Twelve Quarters collects seventeen of her powerful stories--including one of her most famous works of short fiction, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." Each story, ranging from fantasy and intriguing scientific concepts to the medieval world and the future, has an introduction by Le Guin providing perspective or background. The collection also begins with a foreword by the author, sharing her approach to selecting the stories and her experience writing them.
This superb retrospective collection explores human values, relationships, and survival, and showcases the myriad talents of one of the most provocative writers of our time.
The stories included in the collection are:

  • Semley's Necklace
  • April in Paris
  • The Masters
  • Darkness Box
  • The Word of Unbinding
  • The Rule of Names
  • Winter's King
  • The Good Trip
  • Nine Lives
  • Things
  • A Trip to the Head
  • Vaster than Empires and More Slow
  • The Stars Below
  • The Field of Vision
  • Direction of the Road
  • The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
  • The Day Before the Revolution

Book Details

  • Publisher: Harper Perennial
  • Publish Date: Sep 9th, 1987
  • Pages: 320
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.00in - 5.82in - 0.77in - 0.56lb
  • EAN: 9780060914349
  • Categories: Fantasy - Collections & AnthologiesScience Fiction - Collections & AnthologiesLiterary

About the Author

Le Guin, Ursula K.: -

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contributions to American Letters. Her body of work includes twenty-three novels, twelve volumes of short stories, eleven volumes of poetry, thirteen children's books, five essay collections, and four works of translation. The breadth and imagination of her work earned her six Nebula Awards, seven Hugo Awards, and the Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master Award, along with a PEN/Malamud Award and many other accolades. In 2016 she joined the short list of authors to be published in their lifetimes by the Library of America.

Praise for this book

"Le Guin's prose is so very luminous and simple, and she always tells the truth, and when I'm with her people, I'm with living people, on worlds as solid and real as my own. Le Guin has a gift, which is to transform words into worlds." -- Molly Gloss

"Delicious . . . her worlds are haunting psychological visions molded with firm artistry." -- Library Journal

"Ursula Le Guin keeps getting better and better." -- Chicago Sun-Times

"A collection that begins with a fine story and gets better and better." -- Dallas News