The Tombs of Atuan is a fantasy novel by the American author Ursula K. Le Guin, first published in the Winter 1970 issue of Worlds of Fantasy and published as a book by Atheneum in 1971. It was Le Guin's second novel set in the fictional archipelago Earthsea and the middle book in the so-called Earthsea Trilogy (1968 to 1972). Its events take place a few years after A Wizard of Earthsea and around two decades before The Farthest Shore.
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The Tombs of Atuan is a fantasy novel by the American author Ursula K. Le Guin, first published in the Winter 1970 issue of Worlds of Fantasy and published as a book by Atheneum in 1971. It was Le Guin's second novel set in the fictional archipelago Earthsea and the middle book in the so-called Earthsea Trilogy (1968 to 1972). Its events take place a few years after A Wizard of Earthsea and around two decades before The Farthest Shore.
The Tombs of Atuan was a Newbery Honor Book in 1972.
The story centers on a Kargish child who is taken from her family and dedicated as the high priestess in the service of the "Nameless Ones" on the island of Atuan. Her true name is Tenar, but she is renamed Arha, "the eaten one", when she is formally consecrated to the gods' service at age six, as all the high priestesses are considered reincarnations of the first.
Arha's youth is a haunting contrast between lighthearted childish escapades and dark, solemn rituals. Her only true friend is the eunuch...
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