The Lathe of Heaven

 

In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately grasps the power George wields. Soon George must preserve reality itself as Dr. Haber becomes adept at manipulating George’s dreams for his own purposes.

The Lathe of Heaven is an eerily prescient novel from award-winning author Ursula K. Le Guin that masterfully addresses the dangers of power and humanity’s self-destructiveness, questioning the nature of reality itself. It is a classic of the science fiction genre.

Winner of the 1972 Locus Award for Best Novel
Selected for 150 Oregon Books for the Oregon Sesquicentennial

The Lathe of Heaven was serialized in Amazing Stories, and published as a standalone novel by Scribner in 1971. Scribner reissued the book on January 31, 2023, with an introduction by Kelly Link.

Praise

“When I read The Lathe of Heaven as a young man, my mind was boggled. When I read it, more than 25 years later, it breaks my heart. Only a great work of literature can bridge—so thrillingly—that impossible span.”

—Michael Chabon

“In The Lathe of Heaven she summons the city itself, spinning a tale of a Portland man whose dreams shape reality, and the psychedelic consequences that result when that power is exploited by a nefarious doctor. What if one really could create one’s own reality, the book asks? What kind of hell would that be? What kind of insanity would it bring on?”

—Jon Raymond, The Guardian

“Le Guin neatly and eerily conveys the bad-dream civilization which is George’s everyday world.”

—The Washington Post

“Le Guin brings reality itself to the proving ground. ... The author has produced a rare and powerful synthesis of poetry and science, reason and emotion.”

—Theodore Sturgeon, The New York Times

“The Lathe of Heaven is a psychological thriller in every sense of the term. The story can be enjoyed as a struggle between a man and his therapist to ‘make a breakthrough,’ as a SF parable about the dangers of becoming a God, or simply as a page turner, full of twists and shocks.
“Whichever way you approach it, this book is wonderful. Sensitive, moving and shocking—and containing in George Orr one of SF’s greatest characters, The Lathe of Heaven will stay in your mind long after you’ve put it down. Sweet dreams.”

—Sam Ashurst, The SF Site

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