A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #1)

by Ursula K. Le Guin

And the truth is that as a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do . . .”

Tolstoy’s contention that the great men of history are the least free of all

He set hope aside and did what he must do.

songs made a hundred years ago were news to those villagers, and they craved to hear of heroes.

A unique LeGuin touch to remember that her far flung minor characters want to feel the wider world as much as her protagonists do... I’m reminded of Carriere’s imagination of the mugs when one partner dies in the tsunami. Such vision for the yearnings of others is a rare gift.