Hav

Hav Book Description Hav is a fictional city-state, a Mediterranean city, a geography where Turkish, Armenian, Greek, Arabic, Russian and Italian can be heard together on its streets. A travel writer, who visited this geography twenty years apart, describes in an exquisite language the political, cultural and vital texture changes of the city between two recent periods. First, we begin to get to know the Hav of 1985, then an "Intervention" occurs, the city is turned upside down, and after twenty years, we return to the same place, the New Hav of the twenty-first century, the Holy Republic of Myrmidon. Even though we try to trace the old one, we have difficulty; we see that vulgarity is carefully exposed throughout the city by those who rewrite the history of the city with a bigoted view. Hav is a masterful example of hybrid literature, bringing together travel literature and science fiction. There is no such city as Hav, but there may well be one. “Hav is like a mirror held up to several thousand years of the entire Mediterranean history, customs and politics... It is an extremely realistic, absolutely observational work that is truly knowledgeable about the past and present of Saudi Arabia, Turkey or Downing Street. Serious science fiction works are a style of realism, not fantasy; Hav is a perfect example of how useful an alternative geography can be. It would be both a shame and a great loss if you were to be tempted by the foolish snobbery of the masters who belittle science fiction in proportion to their ignorance and turn your back on Hav.” Ursula K. Le Guin (From the Promotional Bulletin)