This 1969 science fiction novel won both the Hugo and Nebula awards and when I finished reading The Left Hand of Darkness, it was easy to see why. Considered one of Le Guin’s signature works, The Left Hand of Darkness is more than sci-fi. It almost feels like a glimpse into Le Guin’s philosophical Taoist beliefs.

With its bisexual inhabitants, Gethen is an androgynous world. Genly Ai is a human envoy to the planet, tasked with bringing it into the multi-world economical cooperative of Ekumen – not unlike today’s European Union. Le Guin beautifully unfolds the Gethenian androgynous way of life, its nations, boundaries, politics and spiritual beliefs through the eyes and experiences of Ai.

Le Guin employs dual first-person narrative, reinforcing the fact that Gethenian Estraven is as much a protagonist as is Genly Ai. Exploring patriotism, Estraven asks himself:

“What is love of one’s country; is it hate of one’s uncountry? Then its not a good thing. Is it simply self-love? That’s a good thing, but one mustn’t make a virtue out of it, or a profession…”

I will leave you with that particularly insightful thought, all the more relevant in today’s pseudo globalist but ultra nationalist world.