Ursula Le Guin has proven her amazing versatility many times over—winning awards for her short stories, fantasy and science fiction novels, children’s books, and essays. In Malafrena she offers her devoted readers something new—a magnificent mainstream novel set in the imaginary country of Orsinia in the turbulent early nineteenth century.
The land of Orsinia has never existed. But through the brilliant vision of Ursula Le Guin, Orsinia and its people come clearly and powerfully alive. Her most impressive achievement, though, is the creation of the novel’s protagonist, Itale Sorde, son and heir to an estate owner in the beautiful Malafrena valley. Malafrena is his story, an elegant, sweeping tale of Itale’s remarkable education, his descent into the maelstrom of a nation’s turmoil, and his final emergence into maturity and self-awareness.
When the fiery, idealistic Itale is sent away to school, he quickly falls under the sway of an underground revolutionary movement sworn to destroy Austria’s domination of Orsinia. Itale is prepared to die for his country’s independence and refuses to return home to the complacent life of a wealthy landowner. He forsakes Malafrena for Krasnoy, a city in ferment. Here he embarks on a new, exciting life, learning the lessons of love from a beautiful baroness and lessons in life from a dazzling group of intelligentsia and dissidents. But Itale pays a bitter price for his convictions: having already given up the secure life of Malafrena, the respect of his father, and perhaps the love of his childhood sweetheart, he is jailed by the Austrian secret police. Though he is brutalized in prison, Itale’s spirit and faith in his cause remain unshaken. And when the Baroness arranges his freedom, in the conclusion to this towering novel of romantic and political passions, Itale finally returns to Malafrena to fight for his shining destiny.