The Unreal and the Real Volume 1: Volume 1: Where on Earth

Description

THE UNREAL AND THE REAL is a two-volume collection of stories, selected by Ursula Le Guin herself, and spans the spectrum of fiction from realism through magical realism, satire, science fiction, surrealism and fantasy. Volume One, WHERE ON EARTH, focuses on Le Guin's interest in realism and magical realism and includes 18 of her satirical, political and experimental earthbound stories. Highlights include WORLD FANTASY and HUGO AWARD-winner 'Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight', the rarely reprinted satirical short, 'The Lost Children', JUPITER AWARD-winner, 'The Diary of the Rose' and the title story of her PULITZER PRIZE finalist collection 'Unlocking the Air'.

Ursula K. Le Guin is one of the finest writers of our time. Her books have attracted millions of devoted readers and won many awards, including the NATIONAL BOOK AWARD, the HUGO and NEBULA AWARDs and a NEWBERY HONOR. Among her novels, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed and the six books of Earthsea have attained undisputed classic status; and her recent series, the Annals of the Western Shore, has won her the PEN CENTER USA CHILDREN'S LITERATURE AWARD and the NEBULA AWARD for Best Novel. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

A century from now people will still be reading the fantasy stories of Ursula K. Le Guin with joy and wonder. Five centuries from now they might ask if their author ever really existed, or if Le Guin was an identity made from the work of many writers rolled into one. A millennium on and her stories will be so familiar, like myths and fairytales today, that only dedicated scholars will ask who wrote them. Such is the fate of the truly great writers, whose stories far outlive their names - GUARDIAN I read her non-stop growing up and read her still. What makes her so extraordinary for me is that her commitment to the consequences of our actions, of our all too human frailties, is unflinching and almost without precedent for a writer of such human optimism. She never turns away from how flinty the heart of the world is. It gives her speculations a resonance, a gravity that few writers, mainstream or generic, can match The first of a two-volume collection focuses on stories that are occasionally tinged with magic but remain primarily realistic ... This volume shows that SFWA Grand Master Le Guin can make as great a mark outside genre fiction as she did within it - PUBLISHERS WEEKLY