The Dispossessed - New Edition

Shevek, a brilliant physicist, was raised on Anarres, a barren moon with no government, army, laws, or police that has long been isolated from other worlds because of its rigid dedication to radical equality.

Shevek’s work promises a breakthrough that could alter the course of human civilisation, but to realise it, he must journey to Urras: a planet dazzling in its beauty and advancement yet fractured by hierarchy.

Though initially welcomed by this unfamiliar civilisation, Shevek soon finds himself caught between competing visions of freedom, a bridge – and a threat – to both. In the conflict that ensues, he must reexamine his beliefs, even as he ignites the fires of change.

From the inimitable Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed is a true classic of the twentieth century, a moving story about what it means to return home and a must-read science fiction masterpiece.

With an introduction from Roddy Doyle.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Praise:

"A seamless creation: everything is made up, nothing seems arbitrary" - New York Times Book Review

"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

"The Dispossessed paints a hopeful; and complex portrait of a society rooted in collectivism" - Naomi Klein

"THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS and THE DISPOSSESSED challenged me to reimagine what human culture might look like - challenged me to imagine how we might throw off the death grip of capitalism, and its attendant values of patriarchy and racism. In each of them, I was transported by Le Guin's prose - lyrical and rich and deliberate in its rhythms. And in each one of them, I found, there was a scene I stopped to reread, sometimes more than once - a scene so powerful it actually moved me to tears" - Susan DeFreitas, Literary Hub

"Le Guin's most philosophical novel ... a study of character, ideology and the constant of change" - 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

"I think that everyone on earth, and everyone who cares about being alive, should read THE DISPOSSESSED" - adrienee maree brown

"Dystopia and utopia are entwined in Le Guin's story of hierarchy-bound Urras and its anarchist neighbour planet Anarres. With stylish prose and intellectual rigour, Le Guin charts the journey of young physicist Shevek, whose theories cause upheaval on both planets, as he struggles to survive, falls in love and contemplates human society" - Sophie Mackintosh, i Paper