He adopted her two sons, and with her had two more children, equally loved. His daughter Ursula Kroeber Le Guin, born in 1929, became a great American writer and creator of worlds. This book is dedicated to her memory. She wouldn’t necessarily approve of the foundation on which this particular ambiguous utopia stands. “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” suggests not. But I remember Estraven explaining to Genly Ai in The Left Hand of Darkness why the keystones of Erhenrang are always set in a red cement: “Without the blood bond, the arch would fall, you see.”
