The Left Hand of Darkness
On sale
14th May 2026
Price: £10.99
Nebula Award, 1970
‘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
‘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
Reviews
Ursula Le Guin is a chemist of the heart
Le Guin's novel imagines how bridges can be built, chasms crossed. By the end, the book has changed us. Thus, the author not only demonstrates how to build worlds. She shows why we build worlds in the first place.
A rich and complex story of friendship and love
The exquisite prose . . . sings with every step. It is one thing to write a good story, or a great story. It is a whole other accomplishment, for an author of fiction, to write a true story
Genre cannot contain Ursula Le Guin: she is a genre in herself
One of the best science fiction novels ever written
No single story did more to upend the genre's conventions
As profuse and original in invention as The Lord of the Rings
Ursula Le Guin is a chemist of the heart
One of the most extraordinary examples of soft-core sf . . . reflects the author's formidable background in anthropology as well as her overriding ethical and artistic concerns
A jewel of a story
