Left Hand of Darkness

1969

The Left Hand of Darkness transports you to the alien world of Gethen, a planet locked in a brutal ice age, where the inhabitants are neither male nor female. Into this strange and complex society comes Genly Ai, a lone human envoy sent to persuade the Gethenians to join an intergalactic alliance. But how can he build trust with a people whose very biology and social structures are built without gender? As Ai naviges the treacherous politics of rival nations and confronts his own deeply ingrained prejudices, he must find a way to bridge an impossible cultural gulf or risk the failure of his mission and his own survival on the unforgiving world they call Winter.