Voices
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- Published: Oct 01 2026
- Pages: 384
- 194 x 128mm
- ISBN: 9781399637435
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Set against a backdrop of magic, violence and intolerance, VOICES is a superb, mesmerising coming of age story from one of the greatest writers of modern times.
'A tour de force' EVENING STANDARD
Ansul was once a peaceful town filled with libraries, schools and temples. But that was long ago, before the Alds came. The Alds believe demons hide in words and so they ban reading and writing, acts now punishable by death. What few books survive remain hidden by the Waylord, and his beloved adopted daughter Memer, a child born of violence.
But times are changing when two strangers arrive. Orrec is a story-teller, the most famous of all: he has the gift of making. His wife Gry's gift is that of calling; she walks with a halflion who both frightens and fascinates the Alds.
This is the story of Memer, of a conquered people craving freedom, and of the power of words.
'Le Guin is effortlessly at the top of her game. Voices... is a marvellously thoughtful and intelligent piece of fiction' Independent
'A tour de force' EVENING STANDARD
Ansul was once a peaceful town filled with libraries, schools and temples. But that was long ago, before the Alds came. The Alds believe demons hide in words and so they ban reading and writing, acts now punishable by death. What few books survive remain hidden by the Waylord, and his beloved adopted daughter Memer, a child born of violence.
But times are changing when two strangers arrive. Orrec is a story-teller, the most famous of all: he has the gift of making. His wife Gry's gift is that of calling; she walks with a halflion who both frightens and fascinates the Alds.
This is the story of Memer, of a conquered people craving freedom, and of the power of words.
'Le Guin is effortlessly at the top of her game. Voices... is a marvellously thoughtful and intelligent piece of fiction' Independent
Press Reviews
Amanda Craig
The TimesLe Guin's crystalline prose and her ability to dramatise political and spiritual issues of our time are unequalled
- Washington Post
As always, Le Guin's language is as airy and sensuous as her concerns are weighty and abstract, every sentence as precise as a spade cut
- Los Angeles Times
Barbarians-versus-brainiacs may be well-trod turf, but Le Guin sure-footedly makes it new. She creates a protagonist with obvious appeal to her intended audience: a geeky girl with bad hair but a quick intelligence, who nurses a seething contempt for the illiterate thugs who run everything
- Observer
Le Guin is a writer of phenomenal power
Margaret Atwood
No question about her literary quality: her graceful prose, carefully thought-through premises, psychological insight and intelligent perception
- Independent
Effortlessly at the top of her game. Voices... is a marvellously thoughtful and intelligent piece of fiction. ... Le Guin's writing is spare and humane, her imagination forceful and dramatic, and her book is transparently the pick... of the summer