Paperback, 281 pages

English language

Published Nov. 29, 2004 by Pocket Books.

ISBN:
978-1-4165-0963-9
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4 stars (3 reviews)

Years ago, they had escaped together from the sinister Tombs of Atuan—she, an isolated young priestess; he, a powerful wizard. Now she is a farmer's widow, having chosen for herself the simple pleasures of an ordinary life. And he is a broken old man, mourning the powers lost to him through no choice of his own. Once, when they were young, they helped each other at a time of darkness and danger and shared an adventure like no other. Now they must join forces again, to help another in need -- the physically and emotionally scarred child whose own destiny has yet to be revealed.

3 editions

reviewed Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin

the book that's bringing me around on Earthsea

4 stars

I've been reading through Earthsea half out of duty to finish everything by my favorite author; I hated A Wizard of Earthsea, loved Tombs of Atuan, and then found The Farthest Shore kinda tedious. But this book - written nearly 2 decades after the original trilogy - brought everything I love about Le Guin's work into the Earthsea series in a way that hadn't hooked me before. The prose, both deep and clear, and the rich depictions of life on Gont and musings on culture and gender finally brought what I'd wanted to see in Earthsea to the surface.

Review of 'Tehanu (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 4)' on Goodreads

4 stars

Wonderful unheroic postscript to the series, the view from age and infirmity and powerlessness of the breakdown of a society built on acquiring and wielding power. From LeGuin's afterword, "the anger of an underdog at social injustice. ... [transcending to] no longer identifying freedom with power, with separating being free from being in control."