Tehanu
core novel 1990 Earthsea Cycle
Record
| First published | 1990 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.07 (62,589 ratings, collected 2026-09-11) |
| Page count | 281 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780689315954 |
Synopsis
Tehanu returns to Tenar and Ged roughly twenty-five years after the events of The Tombs of Atuan. Tenar, now a widowed farmer living on Gont under the name Goha, takes in a severely burned and abused child, naming her Therru, after the girl's fingers are found fused into a claw-like shape and her face left scarred. When Tenar receives word that the dying mage Ogion wishes to see her, she journeys with Therru to his cottage at Re Albi, encountering threatening figures along the way, including a man claiming to be Therru's uncle, whose presence stirs old fears about who may still be hunting the girl.
Where it sits
- Universe: Earthsea Cycle
- Series: Earthsea Cycle core; position 4 of 6 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Awards (verified)
- Nebula Award (Best Novel), 1990: won
- Locus Award (Best Fantasy Novel), 1991: won
Notes
- From the series record (Earthsea Cycle): Six-book cycle (5 novels + 1 collection), 1968-2001.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Earthsea Cycle: position 4 of 6: previous The Farthest Shore (1972) · next Tales from Earthsea (2001)
Sources
← Earthsea Cycle dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.