The Dispossessed, Ursula LeGuin (1974)
What a thought-provoking book. I fell in love with Ursula LeGuin after recently reading the Earth Sea quartet. What a wonderful style of writing, compact yet elaborate. She can describe epic events in mere sentences. And she is so clever!
The Dispossessed has deepened my love for this incredibly intelligent writer. The book describes the story of Shevek, briljant physicist from Anarres, moon to Urras. 160 years earlier, a group of anarchists broke away from Urras to settle on the arid moon and create a harmonious society without rules, law, government or personal possessions. On the surface it all seems pretty good and in excellent working order, but the increasingly harsh living conditions bring out the cracks in the (non-existing) system. Shevek travels to the luscious planet Urras, the first man ever to do so, where he is welcomed with open arms - him and his briljant physics theory on time and space travel. Shevek's view of the world and all that he has learned is put to the question.
The Disposessed reminded me at times of The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, Shevek and Howard Roark are not unalike, though they (literally) come from completely different worlds. Their passion about physics and architecture respectively are not so far apart. But this book has so many layers! An in-depth study guide can be found here.