Annals of the Western Shore trilogy, by Ursula K. Le Guin (the individual titles are Gifts, Voices and Powers):

Each book is an independent story, although they are all connected by their themes and also because the main characters of previous books usually play a minor role in the following one. They are coming of age stories. They are also about freedom, and about stories and the power of storytelling.

The first two novels are relatively short and straightforward, while the last is longer and more complex, but the magic of Le Guin's writing is very much apparent in all of them. She writes beautifully, telling her stories with poignancy and hope.

If you are only going to read one, read Powers, the last and best one of the trilogy, but I think it's worth reading the whole trilogy in order to better appreciate the interconnections between them. ( )

ragazzi che cercano il loro posto nel mondo ( )

Orrec y Gry son amigos desde siempre. A pesar de pertenecer a dominios distintos, han crecido juntos en las Tierras Altas, una región tan dura, feroz y orgullosa como sus gentes. Los habitantes de todos los dominios fomentan un estado de perpetuo conflicto, ambicionando siempre aumentar sus posesiones a costa de sus vecinos. Los dones son poderes y cada dominio ostenta el suyo. Gry, como hija de la brantor de Barre, tiene el don de atraer a los animales para la caza. Orrec, por su parte, es hijo del brantor de Caspromant por lo que tiene el don de deshacer. Sin embargo, mientras Gry se niega a usar su don, Orrec se enfrenta a un terrible sino: tiene el don más poderoso de todos pero no puede controlarlo.

One of the genre's greatest writers. ( )

Orrec and Gry are teenagers in a world in which certain families are endowed with special gifts, or abilites, passed down through the generations. Orrec's gift is Undoing, which means that members of his family can destroy with a look and a word, while Gry's ability is communication with animals, which she is expected to use during the hunt to call animals to their death. Their world is governed by the constant fear that enemy clans will attack with their gifts, and so gifts are used as weapons and threats. Within this society, Orrec and Gry make the decision not to use their gifts and both face consequences for their decisions.
The surface story here is a good one, but I also loved it for the underlying themes: the difficulties of growing up with ideas that differ from those of the traditions of your family, the burden of rule and the hard decisions that come with it, and the danger of pride and anger. Definitely recommended, and the audio version is great, too. ( )