Urst, la Le Guin has proven her amazing

versatility many times over--winning awards

for her short stories, fantasy and science fic-

tion novels, children s books, and essays. In

~lalajrena she offers her devoted readers some-

thing new--a magnificent mainstream novel

set in the imaginary country of Orsinia in the

turbulent early nineteenth century.

The land of Orsinia has never existed. But

through the brilliant vision of Ursula Le Guin,

Orsinia and its people come clearly and power-

fully alive. Her most impressive achievement,

though, is the creation of the novel s protago-

nist, ltale Sorde, son and heir to an estate

owner in the beautiful Malafrena valley.

3~,d,qrc,a is his story, an elegant, sweeping

tale of Itale s remarkable education, his

descent into the maelstrom of a nation s tur-

moil, and his final emergence into maturity

and self-awareness.

When the fiery, idealistic ltale is sent away

to school, be quickly falls under the sway of

an underground revolutionary movement sworn

to destroy Austria s domination of Orsinia.

ltale is prepared to die for his country s inde-

pendence and refuses to return home to the

complacent life of a wealthy landowner. He

forsakes Malafrena for Krasnoy, a city in fer-

ment. Here he embarks on a new, exciting

life, learning the lessons of love from a beau-

tiful baroness and lessons in life from a daz-

igentsia and dissidents. But

price for his convictions:

en up the secure life of

Malafrena, the ri~spect of his father, and per-

haps the loveof .his childhood sweetheart, he