Damiano Delstrega is an interesting character. His dog talks to him, the Archangel Raphael teaches him music and the beginning of the book sees him being left behind by his fellow villagers while they run away from an invading army. Through the trilogy he learns about life and love from a variety of people, not all of whom want to seem him alive and lives through plagues, wars and starvation.

Left Hand of Darkness is an interesting book, seminal and of it's time and yes it is a classic,however the message seems to overwhelm the actual story. I didn't really care for the characters and didn't really mind what happened to them.

This is a good starter on reincarnation. However if you've read anything about this before this really isn't anything new. Don't get me wrong, the story of a psychiatrist finding out that examining the past lives of a patient of his would help her in her present. During the sessions he gets messages about being nicer to people and by being better to people we help ourselves.

Does it add anything to the existing corpus of stuff about reincarnation. Not really, it does though show a professional changing his mind when he's faced with the evidence