Last Letters from Hav

1985 novel by Jan Morris

Last Letters From Hav

Author| Jan Morris
Country| United Kingdom
Language| English
Genre| Science fiction
Publisher| Random House

Publication date

| 1985
Media type| Print (Paperback & Hardback)
Pages| 203 (paperback and hardcover edition)
ISBN| 0-394-53262-7 (hardcover edition)
OCLC| 11518595
Followed by| Hav of the Myrmidons

Last Letters from Hav is a Booker Prize-shortlisted 1985 novel by Welsh writer Jan Morris. Last Letters from Hav was republished in 2006 together with Hav of the Myrmidons and an introduction by Ursula K. Le Guin in a collected volume entitled Hav.[1]

## Plot summary[edit]

Last Letters from Hav is a narrative account of the author's six-month visit to the fictional country of Hav. The novel is written in the form of travel literature. The work is structured in an episodic format with each chapter corresponding to a month spent in Hav. Hav itself is imagined to be a cosmopolitan small independent peninsula located somewhere in the eastern Mediterranean. The novel proceeds with little in the way of connecting plot but contains several episodes describing the author's subjective experience in Hav. The author narrates a string of evocative episodes including visiting a languid casino, a courteous man claiming to be the true Caliph, watching a citywide roof race, and a visit to the mysterious British agency. The novel concludes with the author's invited visit to a strange ritual conclave where she observes several cowled men whom she thinks she might recognize as her acquaintances from her time in Hav. The author then recounts the rise of strange and ill-defined tensions in the country. The author decides to leave the country amidst the growing unrest. On the last line of the novel the author writes that she could, from the train station, see warships approaching on the horizon.

## Genre[edit]

Last Letters from Hav and its sequel Hav of the Myrmidons are works of imaginative fiction. The similarity in style to travel literature and the evocative nature of the fiction make genre classification difficult. However Ursula K. Le Guin notes in her introduction to the collected volume Hav that the work is clearly a work of science fiction as it uses imaginative fiction to address issues raised by the social sciences.[2]

## Reception[edit]

Upon publication the work received a generally positive reception with reviewers noting the genre confusion with travel literature and Jan Morris's history as a travel writer herself.[3]

Upon publication of Last Letters from Hav in the compilation volume Hav, the reviews of the work along with its companion Hav of the Myrmidons were overwhelmingly positive. The New York Review of Books described the book as "... dazzlingly sui-generis, part erudite travel memoir, part speculative fiction, part cautionary political tale. It transports the reader to an extraordinary place that never was, but could well be."[4]

## Awards and nominations[edit]

Last Letters from Hav was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1985.[5]

## References[edit]

1. ^ Morris, Jan (1 September 2011). Hav. New York Review of Books. ISBN 9781590174494 - via Google Books.
2. ^ Le Guin, Ursula K. Introduction. Hav. By Jan Morris. London: Faber and Faber, 2006. 1–3. Print.
3. ^ Disch, Thomas M. "WITH A SHIPLOAD OF SALT." New York Times 2 June 1985, Late City Final Edition ed., Book Review Desk sec.: 41. New York Times. Web. 23 Oct. 2013. <https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/11/23/home/morris-letters.html>
4. ^ "Hav by Jan Morris | New York Review Books". www.nybooks.com. Archived from the original on 8 July 2011.
5. ^ "The Booker Prize 1985 | The Booker Prizes". thebookerprizes.com.

*[OCLC]: Online Computer Library Center number