Books like

Books like The Left Hand of Darkness

12 books with a reading profile close to The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. Deep, contemplative, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

Yol

by Cormac McCarthy

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, narrative

A father and his son are the only characters who really matter in this novel.
2

The Road

by Cormac McCarthy

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, narrative

An unnamed father and his young son walk southward through a scorched American landscape years after an unspecified cataclysm.
3

A Tale for the Time Being

by Ruth Ozeki

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, narrative

On a remote island in British Columbia, a novelist named Ruth finds the washed-up diary of Nao, a sixteen-year-old girl living in Tokyo.
4

The Man in the High Castle

by Philip K. Dick

Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, narrative

In 1962, Philip K.
5

Klara and the Sun

by Kazuo Ishiguro

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, narrative

Klara is an Artificial Friend, a solar-powered solar-observing android waiting in a storefront to be chosen by a child.
6

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

by Claire North

philosophy, narrative

Harry August is a kalachakra, a man who lives his life in a loop.
7

Snow

by Orhan Pamuk

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, narrative

Ka, an exiled poet, returns to Turkey to investigate a series of suicides among young women in the border city of Kars.
8

Contact

by Carl Sagan

Also contemplative · philosophy, narrative

Radio astronomer Ellie Arroway detects a structured signal originating from the star Vega, transmitted in a sequence of prime numbers.
9

The Book of Strange New Things

by Michel Faber

Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, science fiction

Peter Leigh, a dedicated Christian pastor, leaves his wife Beatrice on a crumbling, disaster-stricken Earth to travel to the planet Oasis.
10

The Lathe of Heaven

by Ursula K. Le Guin

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, science fiction

George Orr lives in a future Portland where his dreams physically alter reality.
11

Machines like Me

by Ian McEwan

Also deep and open-ended · philosophy, science fiction

In a version of 1982 where Britain lost the Falklands War, Alan Turing is alive and artificial intelligence has advanced a long way.
12

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

by Annie Dillard

Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, narrative

Annie Dillard uses her home in Virginia’s Roanoke Valley as an observatory to document the biological mechanics of the natural world.

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