From March 31 to April 28, we will discuss Ursula Le Guin's collection of five short stories and novellas Five Ways to Forgiveness. Each of these stories takes place on a pair of planets mutually entangled in a revolutionary struggle against slavery and colonization. Originally published in 1995 as Four Ways to Forgiveness, this collection was later republished with a fifth new short story, "Old Music and the Slave Women."

Join as us for this wonderful detour from our usual reading group fare of radical left theory and history into visionary fiction. Open to all!

Print and ebook copies are available here. Each of the stories are widely available online as well.

A companion to Ursula K. Le Guin's award-winning Hainish novels—including The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed—Five Ways to Forgiveness tells the story of the planet Werel and its colony planet Yeowe, and how their societies are shaped by the legacies of slavery and revolution.

When the slaves on the colony Yeowe (called "assets") overthrow the slave-holding class (called "owners"), the owners on neighboring Werel launch a war to preserve the master-slave society that undergirds the economy of both planets. Told from the perspectives of people caught in the crosshairs of the struggle, the stories in this collection are linked by the character "Old Music," an Ekumen ambassador who is secretly working as an abolitionist and supporter of Yeowe's emancipation. Together they ask: What does forgiveness look like in a world riddled by racism and caste?

In "Betrayals," a disgraced revolutionary leader makes peace with his past. In the intersectional "Forgiveness Day," a female ambassador from the Ekumen struggles with the patriarchal culture of Werel, while "A Man of the People" tells the life story of a male Ekumen ambassador to Yeowe. "A Woman's Liberation" tells the story of a woman who, after escaping to freedom, must reckon with the internalized racism that still enchains her. And finally, the story "Old Music and the Slave Women" braids the collection together and counts the cost of justice.

'Five Ways to Forgiveness' Reading Group

By Institute for Social Ecology

'Five Ways to Forgiveness' Reading Group