In addition to poems and folk tales, Le Guin created verse dramas, records of oral performances, recipes, and even an alphabet and glossary of the Kesh language. With sharp poignancy, Le Guin explores the complexities of the Kesh’s unified society and presents to us-in exquisite detail-their lives, histories, adventures, customs, language, and art. This richly imagined story unfolds through a series of narrated “translations” that illuminate individual lives, including a woman named Stone Telling, who travels beyond the Valley and comes to reside with another tribe, the patriarchal Condor people. Having survived ecological catastrophe brought on by relentless industrialization, the Kesh are a peaceful people who reject governance and the constriction of genders, limit population growth to prevent overcrowding and preserve resources, and maintain a healthy community in which everyone works to contribute to its well-being. Blending story and fable, poetry, artwork, and song, Always Coming Home is this legendary writer’s fictional ethnography of the Kesh, a people of the far future living in a post-apocalyptic Napa Valley.

Le Guin embarked on one of her most detailed, impressive literary projects, a novel that took more than five years to complete. This new edition includes an introduction by Shruti Swamy, author of A House is a Body. Le Guin’s magnificent work of imagination, a visionary, genre-crossing story about a future utopian community on the Northern California coast, hailed as “masterly” ( Newsweek), “hypnotic” ( People) and “ most consistently lyric and luminous book” ( New York Times). Reissued for a new generation of readers, Ursula K. Always Coming Home is a study in what a complete and utter rejection of capitalism and patriarchy might look like-for society and for the art of storytelling.'- The Millions

Always coming home ursula le guin