A violent, empty man is transported to the hidden island of Ata, and is eventually transformed. Though there is a utopian society here to observe and perhaps learn from, as in The Dispossessed and Woman on the Edge of Time, the impulse of this book is not political at all, as in the other two, but spiritual. There is one really problematic part of the plot that involves a rape, but if you can hang with the book despite that, it will take you on a life challenging journey.