The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin

Backlisted

Backlisted Podcast

Arts, Books, Leisure, Hobbies

4.7 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 September 2025

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Tombs of Atuan (1971), the second Earthsea novel, is the subject of this episode. Joining Una and Andy is writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce, current Children’s Laureate. We look at how Le Guin shifts her story from the adventures of Ged in A Wizard of Earthsea to the inner life of Tenar, a girl taken to serve as High Priestess in the labyrinthine tombs. We also consider why, despite her achievements, Le Guin is not more widely known today, and yet her work has clearly shaped generations of readers. On Mon 27th Oct 2025, Backlisted is recording a show at 92NY in New York, on William Maxwell at the New Yorker. Tickets are available now from https://www.92ny.org. On Wed 29th Oct 2025, we will be at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village, NYC, recording a special episode on books by Bob Dylan, including Tarantula and Chronicles Vol. 1. Tickets are available now from https://bitterend.com. * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. * For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm *If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes and exclusive writing, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted *You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Backlisted, the podcast which gives new life to old books.
0:14.4	The book featured on today's show is The Tunes of Atuam by Ursula K. Le Guin.
0:24.3	A special The Tumes of Atuam by Ursula K. Le Guin. A story that first appeared in 1970 in World of Fantasy magazine, before being published as a novel
0:32.5	the following year by Athenean books in the USA and Victor Galantz in the UK. I'm Andy Miller, author of
0:41.9	The Year of Reading Dangerously and Inventry, an unreliable guide to my record collection.
0:47.9	And I'm Dr. Una McCormack, award-winning science fiction author and associate fellow of Homerton
0:53.4	College, Cambridge.
0:55.5	Wait, let me correct you already, because although you are that person, you said award
1:00.6	winning, but that's not true, is it? Since I last spoke to you, you are now awards winning.
1:04.6	I am awards winning author, Dr. Inna McCormack. That's right. I've won two awards.
1:10.5	25 years without one,
1:12.7	and it's like buses. Two have come already. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Thank you.
1:17.0	Not amazing. You deserve them. They're long overdue. I think so too.
1:20.1	Don't say the wrong thing. It'll be terrible.
1:23.2	What are they? I've won a British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Fiction for Younger Readers
1:28.6	for my Doctor Who novel Caged.
1:32.1	Your target novelisation?
1:33.8	Not the target novelisation, no.
1:35.4	Oh, a different one?
1:36.0	A different one, yeah, of the many.
1:37.4	Oh, my God.
1:37.9	And the International Association of TV Tie-in Writers have finally honoured me for one of my Star Trek novels, Asylum.
	...

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