The Left Hand of Darkness
Ursula K. Le Guin (1969)
“A novel about a world with no gender — that turns out to be entirely about how gender shapes everything we think we know.”
Short Summary
Genly Ai, a human envoy from the interplanetary Ekumen, is stranded alone on the ice-bound planet Gethen, whose inhabitants are ambisexual — neither male nor female except during a brief monthly cycle. His mission to convince Gethen to join the Ekumen is thwarted by political intrigue, paranoia, and his own inability to understand a people who have no concept of gender. Only after he is imprisoned in a labor camp and escapes across a glacier with the Gethenian politician Estraven — formerly his enemy — does Ai finally understand the person who had always been his truest ally. By then, it is almost too late.
Detailed Summary
Genly Ai is a young man from Earth sent alone to the planet Gethen — also called Winter — as the First Mobile of the Ekumen, a loose interstellar confederation of human worlds. His mission: to open diplomatic contact and invite Gethen to join. He has been on the planet for two years and has accompli...