Gifts
core novel 2004 Annals of the Western Shore
Record
| First published | 2004 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.78 (12,054 ratings, collected 2026-09-11) |
| Page count | 286 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780152051235 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
In a mountainous region called the Uplands, where certain families are said to carry inherited, often violent magical gifts, two young people, Gry and Orrec, grow up under the weight of the powers they are expected to inherit and wield. Orrec, heir to a lineage whose gift is the power to unmake and destroy with a glance, struggles to control an ability he fears more than he values, while Gry, gifted with the power to call and command animals, resists using her talent for the hunting her family expects of her. As both of them wrestle with the demands their gifts place on their identities and relationships with their families, they eventually set out from their home together into the wider, unfamiliar world beyond the Uplands.
Where it sits
- Universe: Annals of the Western Shore
- Series: Annals of the Western Shore core; position 1 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Awards (verified)
- PEN Center USA Literary Award (Children's Literature), 2005: won
Notes
- From the series record (Annals of the Western Shore): A young-adult fantasy trilogy distinct from Le Guin's Earthsea -- shares no characters, setting, or continuity.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series Annals of the Western Shore: position 1 of 3: next Voices (2006)
Sources
← Annals of the Western Shore dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.