Always Coming Home

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Midway through her career, Ursula K. Le Guin embarked on a detailed literary project that took over five years to complete. Blending story, fable, poetry, artwork, and song, this work serves as a fictional ethnography of the Kesh, a people in a post-apocalyptic Napa Valley. After surviving ecological catastrophe due to relentless industrialization, the Kesh emerge as a peaceful society that rejects governance and rigid gender roles, limits population growth to preserve resources, and fosters a healthy community where everyone contributes to its well-being. The narrative unfolds through "translations" that highlight individual lives, particularly that of Stone Telling, who journeys beyond the Valley to live with the patriarchal Condor people. Le Guin poignantly explores the complexities of the Kesh's unified society, detailing their lives, histories, customs, language, and art. The work includes poems, folk tales, verse dramas, oral performance records, recipes, and even an alphabet and glossary of the Kesh language. Illustrated by artist Margaret Chodos, it also features a musical component with original recordings of Kesh songs, created in collaboration with composer Todd Barton, bringing this unique world to life.