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Ursula K. Le Guin – The Tombs of Atuan – US 1st Athenium hardcover edition – February 1972 - 163 pages. Publisher: Athenium – Cover: Gail Garraty.

Has the 1972 Newbery Award sticker on the front of the dustjacket and states “A 1972 Newbury Honor Book” on dustjacket front flap. Not price clipped.

Summary:

3 The Tombs of Atuan [Earthsea Cycle #2] (1970) - novel by Ursula K. Le Guin

“The main protagonist of The Tombs of Atuan is a young Kargish girl named Tenar. Because she was born as the previous high priestess of the Tombs of Atuan passed away, the Kargish believe that Tenar is the reincarnation of the priestess. (There are many high priestesses, and the priestess of the Tombs of Atuan is just one of them). Renamed Arha, which translates as “the eaten one,” Tenar is forcibly removed from her family at the age of five and conscripted into the society’s patriarchal upper caste known as the Nameless Ones. Though the house she is given to live in is tiny, Tenar’s status as the future priestess is very high in Kargish society. Meanwhile, a young eunuch named Manan becomes her eternal servant.
Although lonely, Tenar’s childhood is marked by friendship to some degree. She develops a very close bond with Manan, and another close bond with a fellow similarly aged priestess-in-training known as Penthe. The two priestesses charged with training Tenar are named Thar and Kossil. Thar is intensely stern but also fair. Kossil, on the other hand, is hateful and suspicious of Tenar’s growing power, and jealous of the esteem in which Tenar is held by the Nameless Ones. Through her training, Tenar learns to navigate the labyrinthine tunnels beneath the tombs, where it is said there is a highly valuable treasure that “evil” sorcerers of Hardic descent have sought for years. Part of Tenar’s duty as high priestess is to protect this treasure.
Another far more unsettling duty that Tenar must carry out is sentencing prisoners to die in the tombs. The culture’s preferred method of capital punishment is starvation, which amounts to a long, slow torture. Tenar is haunted by her role in sentencing individuals to such pain and torment.”

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