Ursula K. Le Guin
Four Ways to Forgiveness
At the far end of our universe, on the twin planets of Werel and Yeowe, all humankind is divided into “assets” and “owners,” tradition and liberation are at war, and freedom takes many forms. Here is a society as complex and troubled as any on our world, peopled with unforgettable characters struggling to become fully human. For the disgraced revolutionary Abberkam, the callow “space brat” Solly, the haughty soldier Teyeo, and the Ekumen historian and Hainish exile Havzhiva, freedom and duty both begin in the heart, and success as well as failure has its costs.
Winner of the 1996 Locus Award for Best Collection
Winner of the 1995 Locus Award for Best Novella (“Forgiveness Day”)
Winner of the 1995 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award (“Forgiveness Day”)
Winner of the 1995 Asimov’s Readers Award for Best Novella (“Forgiveness Day”)
Four Ways to Forgiveness was originally published in 1995 by Harper Prism. In 2017, it was released as a Library of America eBook Classic, with an additional story, as Five Ways to Forgiveness. All five stories are also included in The Hainish Novels and Stories, also published in 2017 by Library of America.
Though this is often considered the seventh title of the Hainish Cycle, Ursula maintained that there is no particular cycle or order for the Ekumen novels.