Gifts - Annals of the Western Shore, Book 1

Ursula K. Le Guin

Harcourt Children's Books

2004

274 páginas

9h 8m

ISBN-13: 9780152051235

Scattered among poor, desolate farms, the clans of the Uplands possess gifts. Wondrous gifts: the ability--with a glance, a gesture, a word--to summon animals, bring forth fire, move the land. Fearsome gifts: They can twist a limb, chain a mind, inflict a wasting illness. The Uplanders live in constant fear that one family might unleash its gift against another. Two young people, friends since childhood, decide not to use their gifts. One, a girl, refuses to bring animals to their death in the hunt. The other, a boy, wears a blindfold lest his eyes and his anger kill.

In this beautifully crafted story, Ursula K. Le Guin writes of the proud cruelty of power, of how hard it is to grow up, and of how much harder still it is to find, in the world's darkness, gifts of light.

Resenhas (1)

4 (Muito bom)

This is the first book I read by the author - I am a fan of fantasy so someone recommended it. I think I started the book with high expectations. The beggining was a bit dull and it was hard for me to keep up with all the names. When I started to understand better the world and the characters, I was hooked and the rest of the reading was very pleasant. One of the themes is the comming of age of one of the main characters, Orrec, and it is interesting to see his development, from boy to man, in this land where violence is the rule and hard work, part of daily life. Besides the expectations from his family, society, and himself, Orrec also needs to deal with the gift, the powers passed from generarion to generation that make each one know their place in society.