The Left Hand of Darkness

'Genre cannot contain Ursula Le Guin: she is a genre in herself' Zadie Smith 'Groundbreaking' Guardian 'No single work did more to upend the genre's conventions' Paris Review A lone human emissary journeys from Earth to the planet of Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants can choose - and change - their gender. His goal is to secure Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilisation, but to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and the culture he encounters. Forced into a perilous partnership with an outcast on a journey across the planet's bitter, whirling snow, he learns how survival, trust and love take shape in a world nothing like his own. A visionary classic, The Left Hand of Darkness reshaped fiction with its radical exploration of gender, human connection and power. WITH AN INTRODUCTION FROM DAVID MITCHELL

Ursula K. Le Guin