Four Ways to Forgiveness
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Four Ways to Forgiveness is a collection of four short stories by Ursula K. Le Guin.
Contents:
- Betrayals
- Forgiveness Day
- A Man of the People
- A Woman's Liberation
- Notes on Werel and Yeowe
The collection was first published by Harper Paperbacks (a division of HarperCollins Publishers) in 1995. Betrayals first appeared in 1994 in Blue Motel. The others appeared in the science fiction magazine Asimov's in 1994 and 1995. All four stories are part of the future history of the Ekumen, a collective of planets created by Le Guin.
[edit] Background
The four stories in Four Ways to Forgiveness are based on two planets named Werel and Yeowe, in a distant solar system. These planets are primarily inhabited by a humanoid species with slightly blue-tinged dark or light skin, black hair, and dark eyes.
The common themes of the stories revolve around the concepts of freedom and slavery. For thousands of years, the dark-skinned owners of Werel held the light-skinned assets in slavery. However, in recent years, following the colonization of the second planet, Yeowe, things have begun to change on Werel. The Yeowans have gained freedom and are struggling to establish their own government and identity, and gain admittance into the Ekumen of worlds.
| Ursula K. Le Guin's Ekumen series | |
| The Dispossessed | The Word for World is Forest | Rocannon's World | Planet of Exile | City of Illusions | The Left Hand of Darkness | Four Ways to Forgiveness | The Telling | |
