The Compass Rose

The Compass Rose by Ursula K Le Guin

Shaun's father, Jerry, had a gift for growing roses. Patient and kind, Jerry Murray could get anything, including the people around him, to bloom.

Shaun, an aspiring writer, decides to pack up and leave behind his loved ones, the town he grew up in, and the only life he had ever known.

But starting over, far away from home and family, brings new challenges-and gifts-and Shaun finds himself living a story vastly different from the one he tried to write for himself. Now, almost eight years later, his world revolves around his daughter, Marie, and Shaun has safely locked away the memories of his past life.

But with one fateful gust of wind, Marie's curiosity, and a trail of roses perhaps sent from beyond the grave, Shaun finds himself face-to-face with the past he tried so hard to leave behind. Will he find the courage to rewrite his story? Or is it too late?

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was born in 1929 in Berkeley, and lives in Portland, Oregon. As of 2014, she has published twenty-one novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry, and four of translation, and has received many honors and awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, and PEN/Malamud. Her most recent publications are Finding My Elegy: New and Selected Poems and The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories.