The Last Unicorn
Audiobook
The Last Unicorn
We are not always what we seem, and are rarely what we wish to be.
To be the last of your kind is a lonely existence. The unicorn living in the lilac wood could tell you a thing or two about it. Centuries have passed since she last saw one of her own, and the world around her has changed dramatically. But not for the better. A shadow has fallen over the kingdom, and the unicorn discovers that the Red Bull of King Morann is behind the disappearance of her kind. Where did it come from? And is it a spectre, or a creature of flesh and blood? And why is it the key to uncovering what happened to the immortal magical fauna in the realm of wonders? The heroine sets out in search of answers, but will face many dangers and obstacles. Fortunately, along the way she meets two remarkable travellers who become her friends in need…
This melancholic, poetic story about love, innocence, and finding one's place in the world has been enchanting young readers for over half a century. Time magazine ranked it among the 100 best fantasy books of all time. It was adapted into an animated film of the same name in 1982, which is still considered a cult classic. The characters were voiced by, among others, Mia Farrow, Jeff Bridges, and Christopher Lee.
What they wrote about the book:
For years, readers have willingly consulted the author as an expert on matters of the heart, where reason is not enough.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
At its most powerful, Beagle's prose shines so brightly it eclipses the moon, the sun, the stars, and the entire galaxy.
- The Seattle Times
Peter S(oyer) Beagle
(* 1939) One of the most important living fantasy authors, he grew up in the Bronx, New York. He was drawn to these literary genres from childhood, influenced by Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Thanks to his evident talent, he received a scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh, where he studied creative writing, a subject he also pursued during a fellowship at Stanford, in a class with Ken Kesey and Larry McMurtry, among others. He did not, however, turn his back on his home borough; on the contrary, it provided the inspiration for his debut novel, A Fine and Private Place (1960). He made a memorable mark on the literary canon with The Last Unicorn (1968): a lyrical fantasy about a lonely unicorn who sets out to find the other members of her species and gets to know the world in the process. For this symbolic work, which was later adapted into both animated and comic book forms, he received numerous accolades at the age of just twenty-nine. However, it was the fantasy novella Two Hearts (2005) that earned him the Hugo and Nebula Awards. The Czech version of which will be published in the upcoming collection Cesta domů. The author's other noteworthy works include the shorter prose In Calabria (2017) and the novels The Folk of the Air (1986), The Innkeeper’s Song (1996), Tamsin (1999), and Summerlong (2016), which have not yet been translated into Czech. He has also made a name for himself as a sought-after editor.
