The Wind’s Twelve Quarters

＂Splendidly intricate and hugely imaginative tales.＂ --Newsweek

A striking new 50th anniversary edition of Ursula K. Le Guin’s extraordinary short story collection

The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the National Book Award, the Kafka Award, and the Pushcart Prize, Ursula K. Le Guin is renowned for her lyrical writing, rich characters, and diverse worlds. The Wind’s Twelve Quarters collects seventeen of her powerful stories--including one of her most famous works of short fiction, ＂The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.＂ Each story, ranging from fantasy and intriguing scientific concepts to the medieval world and the future, has an introduction by Le Guin providing perspective or background. The collection also begins with a foreword by the author, sharing her approach to selecting the stories and her experience writing them.
This superb retrospective collection explores human values, relationships, and survival, and showcases the myriad talents of one of the most provocative writers of our time.
The stories included in the collection are:

• Semley’s Necklace
• April in Paris
• The Masters
• Darkness Box
• The Word of Unbinding
• The Rule of Names
• Winter’s King
• The Good Trip
• Nine Lives
• Things
• A Trip to the Head
• Vaster than Empires and More Slow
• The Stars Below
• The Field of Vision
• Direction of the Road
• The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
• The Day Before the Revolution

作者簡介

娥蘇拉．勒瑰恩（Ursula K. Le Guin）

　　美國重要奇幻科幻、女性主義文學作家，1929年 生。著有長篇小說20餘部、短篇小說集10本、詩集7本、評論集4本、童書10餘本；並編纂文選與從事翻譯，包括將老子《道德經》譯成英文。曾獲美國國家 書卷獎、號角書獎、紐伯瑞獎、世界奇幻獎、軌跡獎、星雲獎、雨果獎、小詹姆斯．提普翠獎、卡夫卡獎、普須卡獎……等，以及SFWA大師、洛杉磯時報 Robert Kirsch終生成就獎等榮譽。

　　她的奇幻成長小說系列「地海六部曲」與「魔戒」、「納尼亞傳說」並列奇幻經典，科幻小 說《黑暗的左手》、《一無所有》等也是科幻迷心目中永遠的經典。小說探討的議題，從自我成長與認同，到社會制度探討與性別問題，都鞭辟入裡，在優美恬澹的 敘事風格中予人寬廣深沈的省思空間。西洋文學評論家哈洛．卜倫將她列為美國經典作家之列，日本作家村上春樹也是她的書迷。

　　Ursula K. Le Guin has published twenty-one novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received the Hugo, Nebula, Endeavor, Locus, Tiptree, Sturgeon, PEN-Malamud, and National Book Award and the Pushcart and Janet Heidinger Kafka prizes, among others.

　　In recent years she has received lifetime achievement awards from World Fantasy Awards, Los Angeles Times, Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, and Willamette Writers, as well as the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master Award and the Library of Congress Living Legends award. Le Guin was the recipient of the Association for Library Service to Children s May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award and the Margaret Edwards Award.

　　Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, Words Are My Matter, an essay collection, and Finding My Elegy, New and Selected Poems. She lives in Portland, Oregon, and her website is UrsulaKLeGuin.com.