The novel “The Left Hand of Darkness” by the American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, who in a few years has gone from a debutant to a recognized master, whose work was awarded the Hugo Award, awarded specifically for this book, without any exaggeration, is one of the masterpieces of world fiction .At the center of the story is the problem of contact between an earthling, who is a messenger of the Galactic Union, and the inhabitants of the distant and isolated planet Gethen, inhabited by bisexual creatures - androgynes, whose gender and corresponding behavior change cyclically. The reader will encounter a hitherto unknown model of society formed by such unusual creatures. In this society, strange laws reign, there are unique technical means, there is its own religion and its own contradictions, which it can only resolve by coming into contact with other worlds thanks to the heroic efforts of the messenger of the Earth.