Always Coming Home
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Yareli Arizmendi
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Isabella Star LeBlanc
About this listen
“One of [Le Guin's] most radical novels. . . . A study in what a complete and utter rejection of capitalism and patriarchy might look like—for society and for the art of storytelling.""—The Millions
Reissued for a new generation of readers and listeners, Always Coming Home is Ursula K. Le Guin’s magnificent work of imagination, a visionary, genre-crossing story about a future utopian community on the Northern California coast, hailed as “masterly” (Newsweek), “hypnotic” (People) and “[her] most consistently lyric and luminous book” (New York Times). This new edition features an introduction by Shruti Swamy, author of A House is a Body, as well as illuminating extra material that includes interviews and liner notes to the book's musical soundtrack.
Midway through her career, Le Guin embarked on one of her most detailed, impressive literary projects, a novel that took more than five years to complete. Blending story and fable, poetry, artwork, and song, Always Coming Home is this legendary writer’s fictional ethnography of the Kesh, a people of the far future living in a post-apocalyptic Napa Valley.
Having survived ecological catastrophe brought on by relentless industrialization, the Kesh are a peaceful people who reject governance and the constriction of genders, limit population growth to prevent overcrowding and preserve resources, and maintain a healthy community in which everyone works to contribute to its well-being. This richly imagined story unfolds through a series of narrated “translations” that illuminate individual lives, including a woman named Stone Telling, who travels beyond the Valley and comes to reside with another tribe, the patriarchal Condor people. With sharp poignancy, Le Guin explores the complexities of the Kesh’s unified society and presents to us—in exquisite detail—their lives, histories, adventures, customs, language, and art.
In addition to poems and folk tales, Le Guin created verse dramas, records of oral performances, recipes, and even an alphabet and glossary of the Kesh language. The novel is illustrated throughout with drawings by artist Margaret Chodos and includes a musical component—original recordings of Kesh songs that Le Guin collaborated on with composer Todd Barton—bringing this utterly original and compelling world to life.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2019 Literary Classics of the United States, Inc. (P)2022 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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Book 3 won the 2008 Nebula Award
- By K. Danielson on 11-10-11
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The Wave in the Mind
- Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination
- By: Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Join Ursula K. Le Guin as she explores a broad array of subjects, ranging from Tolstoy, Twain, and Tolkien to women's shoes, beauty, and family life. With her customary wit, intelligence, and literary craftsmanship, she offers a diverse and highly engaging set of stories. The Wave in the Mind includes some of Le Guin's finest literary criticism, rare autobiographical writings, performance-art pieces, and most centrally, her reflections on the arts of writing and reading.
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Honest and deeply beautiful
- By Lex on 07-13-19
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Changing Planes
- By: Ursula Le Guin
- Narrated by: Gabrielle de Cuir
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Sita Dulip has missed her flight out of Chicago. But instead of listening to garbled announcements in the airport, she discovers a method of bypassing the crowds at the desks, a nasty lunch, whimpering children, their punitive parents, and the blue plastic chairs bolted to the floor: she changes planes—literally. Sita discovers entire planes of existence and visits societies not found on Earth—bizarre societies that share similarities with Earth's cultures and sometimes open doors into the alien.
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Lovely
- By Laura Sharp on 12-07-23
By: Ursula Le Guin
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The Lathe of Heaven
- By: Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately grasps the power George wields. Soon George must preserve reality itself as Dr. Haber becomes adept at manipulating George's dreams for his own purposes.
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Amazing!
- By Adrienne R. on 11-23-18
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Lavinia
- By: Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Highly acclaimed author Ursula K. Le Guin lends a resonant voice to a pivotal yet often overlooked character of Vergil's The Aeneid. Born into peace and freedom, Lavinia is stunned to learn that she will be the cause of a great war - or so the prophecies and omens claim. Her fate is sealed, however, when she meets a man from Troy.
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Fascinatingly well written
- By Kennet on 03-11-09
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The Art of Starving
- By: Sam J. Miller
- Narrated by: Tom Phelan
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Matt hasn't eaten in days. His stomach stabs and twists inside, pleading for a meal, but Matt won't give in. The hunger clears his mind, keeps him sharp - and he needs to be as sharp as possible if he's going to find out just how Tariq and his band of high school bullies drove his sister, Maya, away. Matt's hardworking mom keeps the kitchen crammed with food, but Matt can resist the siren call of casseroles and cookies because he has discovered something: the less he eats the more he seems to have...powers.
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Transformative book!
- By Uno Person on 01-01-20
By: Sam J. Miller
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Greenglass House
- By: Kate Milford
- Narrated by: Chris Henry Coffey
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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It's wintertime at Greenglass House. The creaky smuggler's inn is always quiet during this season, and 12-year-old Milo, the innkeepers' adopted son, plans to spend his holidays relaxing. But on the first icy night of vacation, out of nowhere, the guest bell rings. Then rings again. And again. Soon Milo's home is bursting with odd, secretive guests, each one bearing a strange story that is somehow connected to the rambling old house.
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Thoroughly delightful experience!
- By Lori K. on 02-19-17
By: Kate Milford
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Dancing at the Edge of the World
- Thoughts on Words, Women, Places
- By: Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrated by: Gabrielle de Cuir
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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From modern literature to menopause, from utopian thought to rodeos - in this classic collection of essays, Ursula K. Le Guin roves with her customary audacity over the intersecting arenas of literature, feminism, and social responsibility, exploding any received notions she comes across and revealing visionary possibilities in their stead.
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Not my favorite Le Guin collection, but...
- By Cameron on 05-11-19
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The Stories of Paul Bowles
- By: Paul Bowles
- Narrated by: Mike Ortego, Raphael Corkhill
- Length: 28 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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An American cult figure, Paul Bowles has fascinated such disparate talents as Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, Truman Capote, William S. Burroughs, Gore Vidal, and Tobias Wolff. From “The Delicate Prey” to “Too Far from Home,” this definitive collection celebrates the Bowles’s masterful artistry in short fiction.
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Superb production of a superb anthology
- By Adam on 10-25-22
By: Paul Bowles
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Marvelous
- A Novel
- By: Molly Greeley
- Narrated by: Ell Potter
- Length: 15 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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1547: Pedro Gonsalvus, a young boy living on the island of Tenerife, understands that he is different from the other children in his village. He is mercilessly ridiculed for the shiny layer of hair covering his body from head to toe. When he is kidnapped off the beach near his home, he finds himself delivered by a slave broker into the dangerous and glamorous world of France’s royal court. There “Monsieur Sauvage,” as he is known, learns French, literature, and sword fighting, becoming an attendant to the French King Henri II and a particular favorite of his queen.
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Writing a little flowery for my taste
- By Susan on 06-30-24
By: Molly Greeley
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So Big
- A Novel
- By: Edna Ferber
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and widely considered to be Edna Ferber’s greatest achievement, So Big is a classic novel of turn-of-the-century Chicago. So Big is the unforgettable story of the indomitable Selina Peake DeJong and her struggles to stay afloat and maintain her dignity in the face of a challenging marriage, widowhood, and single parenthood.
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Excellent
- By Jean on 03-10-23
By: Edna Ferber
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Finnegans Wake
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Barry McGovern, Marcella Riordan
- Length: 29 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Finnegans Wake is the greatest challenge in 20th-century literature. Who is Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker? And what did he get up to in Phoenix Park? And what did Anna Livia Plurabelle have to say about it? In the rich nighttime and the language of dreams, here are history, anecdote, myth, folk tale and, above all, a wondrous sense of humor, colored by a clear sense of humanity. In this exceptional reading by the Irish actor Barry McGovern, with Marcella Riordan, the world of the Wake is more accessible than ever before.
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The keys to. Given!
- By hyand on 06-16-21
By: James Joyce
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The Dance Tree
- A Novel
- By: Kiran Millwood Hargrave
- Narrated by: Ruta Gedmintas
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Strasbourg, 1518. In the midst of a blisteringly hot summer, a lone woman begins to dance in the city square. She dances for days without pause or rest, and when hundreds of other women join her, the men running the city declare a state of emergency and hire musicians to play the Devil out of the mob.
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Best fiction I’ve listened to in years!
- By angela on 07-18-24
What listeners say about Always Coming Home
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-02-23
Loved it!!!
If you feel depressed about the future, here is a source of optimism!! This book shows us the kind of people we could become, if we want to!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Josh
- 09-18-23
Anyone who would give this a bad score is boring
It’s beautiful, dense, re-readable. I’m not sure if I would recommend the audiobook. There’s so much here. I will be getting a physical copy in the future so I can appreciate the entirety of what Le Guin is saying.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Daniel Moore
- 07-22-24
Only for the Scholar at Heart
I started this book because I loved loved The Dispossessed and I thought this would be another utopia novel. It's not a novel. It's a collection of ethnographic gatherings about an invented culture with only one narrative of any length mixed in with folklore, scientific info, poems, etc. The forward tells you this but foolish me I didn't believe it. I finally finished the book after a long struggle but it really wasn't for me.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Jessica Fujan
- 04-15-24
Unlike anything else, life changing
Expertly performed, a triumph of world building. Be sure to listen to the accompanying original folk music, maybe before you start the 'novel'
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- Michael
- 03-30-24
A favorite Ursula K. Le Guin
Le Guin is usually unusual and this is unusual.
WARNING: This book is not for everyone – it has little to no action or plot.
If you don’t get it, you will be bored out of your mind.
It is kind of speculative archaeology. It is largely about language, place, and people.
These are myths, songs, and stories told by the distant decedents of Californian survivors of some apocalyptic global catastrophe.
Le Guin is almost always good, and often great.
I consider this one of her greatest works.
The narration is excellent.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Michael G Kurilla
- 07-16-23
Pastoral utopia that is boring
Ursula K Le Guin’s Always Coming Home is less a story and more an anthropological exploration of some future utopia. The overall story structure is a bit awkward with various renditions of folktales interspersed with professional anthropological discussion and commentary, along with one split auto-biography of one woman who has lived in what is presented as the two dominant cultures of the region. The book ends with musical renditions and songs in this futuristic language. The two dominant cultures consist of a matriarchal, pastoral society with a local patriarchal war-like society. While there is some degree of industry, even computers, only warfare and country lifestyles get attention.
Le Guin’s utopia suffers from faulty world building. The basis of some apocalypse in the past to create this world is never presented. Furthermore, the anthropologist is contemporary citing place names which would suggest some continuity with our current timeline, but this seems unknown in these peoples. The pastoral utopia seems a mash-up of Native American themes with an Amish orientation. For sustainable pastoral utopias, there is one major requirement which is homogeneity. Everyone must think alike in order to buy into all the unstated mores and practices. In addition, there is one major consequence and that is the abolition of any progress. The war-like group was a caricature. It was never clear who they were ever warring against or what their ultimate goals included. At the same time, if there were another culture (from which the anthropologist was derived), it’s unclear why they allow this situation to persist. Utopias are hard to pull off.
The narration is reasonable, although the last bits are consumed by funeral dirges with chantings.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Paul W
- 02-21-24
Best enjoyed with the visuals or in book form
I don't think the audio format does justice to this impressive anthropological fiction. It has enjoyable short stories and anecdotal glimpses into an imagined society's customs. The printed book has many illustrations, maps, glossaries, and music sheets that are made externally available for this audio version. However, the visuals are important to fully grasping the story portions, and defeats much of the point to opting for an audio format if you're needing to routinely refer to visuals.
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3 people found this helpful