Review by clong (2005-06-28)
This is an interesting and satisfying collections of 11 non-scifi, non-fantasy Le Guin short stories. They are all set in the fictional eastern European nation of Orsinia, and range in dates from medieval times through the height of the cold war.

Most of these stories tell of people facing bleak lives, with little or no opportunity for advancement. Several include very effective tales of romance. Le Guin does good job of quickly establishing believable characters and inviting the reader into these characters' challenging lives. My favorite was the earliest written of the bunch, An die Musik.