The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin

A quick note to say that if you would like to help me with the running costs of the book group, you can give a small contribution via Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/annabookgroup

Thank you to everyone who helped me with the Meetup fees in 2025!

We will meet from 6:30 onwards at the pub and go to the room upstairs between 6:30 and 7:00. Please check with the bar staff before going up that the room is ready and please don't go up before our start time. We will start the discussion at around 7:00pm and talk about the book for an hour or so before having a break. Then we can vote on next month's book.

If you have any suggestions for short (or shortish) books for the next shortlist, please message me ahead of time.

Thanks!

------------

The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin (1968, 304 pages)

A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction

------------------

Shortlist for June

The Wood at Midwinter - Susanna Clarke (2024, 60 pages)

'A church is a sort of wood. A wood is a sort of church. They're the same thing really.'

Nineteen-year-old Merowdis Scott is an unusual girl. She can talk to animals and trees—and she is only ever happy when she is walking in the woods.

One snowy afternoon, out with her dogs and Apple the pig, Merowdis encounters a blackbird and a fox. As darkness falls, a strange figure enters in their midst—and the path of her life is changed forever.

Eastbound - Maylis de Kerangal (2012, 140 pages)

From Wellcome Prize winner Maylis de Kerangal comes a fast-paced story of two fugitives set on the Trans-Siberian railway, where a desperate Russian conscript hopes a chance encounter with a French woman will offer him an escape. In sensual prose evoking jazz music and infused with a sense of surreal softness, Maylis de Kerangal brings the filthy, violent circumstances of Aliocha’s journey into sharp focus.

Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (1899, 188 pages)

Heart of Darkness, a novel by Joseph Conrad, was originally a three-part series in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899. It is a story within a story, following a character named Charlie Marlow, who recounts his adventure to a group of men onboard an anchored ship. The story told is of his early life as a ferry boat captain. Although his job was to transport ivory downriver, Charlie develops an interest in investing an ivory procurement agent, Kurtz, who is employed by the government. Preceded by his reputation as a brilliant emissary of progress, Kurtz has now established himself as a god among the natives in “one of the darkest places on earth.” Marlow suspects something else of Kurtz: he has gone mad.