'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 ReviewA 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