City and the City

Daring and disturbing . . . Mieville illuminates fundamental and unsettling questions about culture, governance and the shadowy differences that keep us apart. --Walter Mosley, author of Devil in a Blue Dress Lots of books dabble in several genres but few manage to weld them together as seamlessly and as originally as The City and The City. In a tale set in a series of cities vertiginously layered in the same space, Mieville offers the detective novel re-envisioned through the prism of the fantastic. The result is a stunning piece of artistry that has both all the satisfactions of a good mystery and all the delight and wonder of the best fantasy. --Brian Evenson, author of Last Days If Philip K. Dick and Raymond Chandler's love child were raised by Franz Kafka, the writing that emerged might resemble China Mieville's new novel, The City & the City. --Los Angeles Times China Mieville has made his name via award-winning, genre-bending titles such as King Rat, Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council. Now, in The City & the City, he sets out to bend yet another genre, that of the police procedural, and he succeeds brilliantly.... [An] extraordinary, wholly engaging read. -- St. Petersburg Times An eye-opening genre-buster. The names of Kafka and Orwell tend to be invoked too easily for anything a bit out of the ordinary, but in this case they are worthy comparisons. -- The Times, London Evoking such writers as Franz Kafka and Mikhail Bulgakov, Mr. Mieville asks readers to make conceptual leaps and not to simply take flights of fancy. --Wall Street Journal An outstanding take on police procedurals.... Through this exaggerated metaphor of segregation, Mieville skillfully examines the illusions people embrace to preserve their preferred social realities. -- Publishers Weekly, starred review An excellent police procedural and a fascinating urban fantasy, this is essential reading for all mystery and fantasy fans. --Booklist, starred review This spectacularly, intricately paranoid yarn is worth the effort. -- Kirkus, starred review