Threshold

Tight, square, uncreased spine. Clean, unmarked interior. Some small areas of creasing and edge-wear to the covers. In this often overlooked novel, Le Guin questions the Narnian fantasy portal trope and muddies the boundary between childhood flights of imagination and grown-up responsibilities. First published in the US as The Beginning Place, the book tells the tale of two protagonists at the threshold of adulthood and their relationship with the mythic village of Tembreabrezi, a twilight town unburdened by the strictures of time which has found itself increasingly isolated due to the townsfolk's fear of a ravenous beast roaming its outskirts. The creature, which Le Guin describes as 'white, wrinkled, twice a man's height, dragging its bulk painfully and with terrible quickness, round mouth open in the hissing howl of hunger and insatiable pain, and blind,' is strikingly depicted here by Richard Clifton-Dey, also known for his covers of Philip José Farmer's Lord Tyger and Blue Öyster Cult's album, Cultösaurus Erectus. 176 pp.