Very Far Away from Anywhere Else

A slender, realistic story of a young man's coming of age, Very Far Away from Anywhere Else is one of the most inspiring novels Ursula K. Le Guin ever published.

Owen is seventeen and smart. He knows what he wants to do with his life. But then he meets Natalie and he realizes he doesn't know anything much at all.

"Like all Le Guin's work, Very Far Away from Anywhere Else is about the invisible structures of society and about the challenge to live honestly. On a Sunday years ago I was lucky to encounter a book that could show me the breadth our lives have--that the discovery of what leads us on is better than the goal of perfection." --Emily Schultz, Bustle

"An engaging, well written novel." --New York Times

What happens when your first real friend is a girl, and everyone expects it to be something more?

• Intellectual Connection: Owen is obsessed with science; Natalie lives for music. Their conversations about ambition, art, and consciousness forge a bond deeper than either has ever known.
• Coming of Age Story: A thoughtful, realistic novel about an introspective seventeen-year-old learning to defy expectations--from his parents and his peers--to find his own path.
• Friendship vs Romance: Owen and Natalie have something rare and real. But when unspoken feelings and outside pressures complicate their friendship, they must decide what they truly mean to each other.
• Introvert Protagonist: A powerfully honest first-person story for any reader who has ever felt like an outsider, searching for one person who truly understands.

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contributions to American Letters. Her body of work includes twenty-three novels, twelve volumes of short stories, eleven volumes of poetry, thirteen children's books, five essay collections, and four works of translation. The breadth and imagination of her work earned her six Nebula Awards, seven Hugo Awards, and the Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master Award, along with a PEN/Malamud Award and many other accolades. In 2016 she joined the short list of authors to be published in their lifetimes by the Library of America.