diff --git a/contrib/pylightning/setup.py b/contrib/pylightning/setup.py
index 2e1c94a12..84f2f98f2 100644
--- a/contrib/pylightning/setup.py
+++ b/contrib/pylightning/setup.py
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 from setuptools import setup
 import lightning
+import io
 
 
-with open('README.md', encoding='utf-8') as f:
+with io.open('README.md', encoding='utf-8') as f:
     long_description = f.read()
 
 setup(name='pylightning',