The City & The City

By: China Mieville

Narrated by: John Lee

New York Times best-selling author China Miéville delivers his most accomplished novel yet, an existential thriller set in a city unlike any other, real or imagined.

When a murdered woman is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he investigates, the evidence points to conspiracies far stranger and more deadly than anything he could have imagined.

Borlú must travel from the decaying Beszel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own. This is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a shift in perception, a seeing of the unseen. His destination is Beszel's equal, rival, and intimate neighbor, the rich and vibrant city of Ul Qoma.

With Ul Qoman detective Qussim Dhatt, and struggling with his own transition, Borlú is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of rabid nationalists intent on destroying their neighboring city, and unificationists who dream of dissolving the two into one. As the detectives uncover the dead woman's secrets, they begin to suspect a truth that could cost them and those they care about more than their lives.

What stands against them are murderous powers in Beszel and in Ul Qoma: and, most terrifying of all, that which lies between these two cities.

Casting shades of Kafka and Philip K. Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984, The City & The City is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical and artistic heights.

• Hugo Award, Best Novel, 2010

©2009 China Mieville (P)2009 Random House

Critic reviews

"Daring and disturbing...Miéville 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, Miéville 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)

"Mr. Miéville's novels - seven so far - have been showered with prizes; three have won the Arthur C. Clarke award, given annually to the best science fiction novel published in Britain…. [H]e stands out from the crowd for the quality, mischievousness and erudition of his writing…. Among the many topics that bubble beneath the wild imagination at play are millennial anxiety, religious cults, the relationship between the citizen and the state and the role of fate and free will." (The New York Times)

Weird--in a Good Way

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Absolutely. Touted as an

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Ending seemed too irrelevant, like a great trip with no destination...no wrap up, no conclusion, no real answers or resolution.

What does John Lee bring to the story that you wouldn???t experience if you just read the book?

His very elegant and rich voice that lends credibility to an otherwise totally Kafka-ish bizarre story--definitely pronounciation.

Did The City & The City inspire you to do anything?

Think. There were some great reviews written (Ryan from MA, Jefferson from Japan) and some that missed the boat--the dock--the city...the

Any additional comments?

A good introduction to Mieville; looking forward to reading more of his works.

A gripping tale that delves into the nature of human perception

As this mystery unravels, it draws the reader into a mirror maze of conflicting perspectives, becoming a fascinating tale about the nature of human perception.

Very Interesting Premise - good performance

I read this book as the 2008 Hugo SCI-FI best novel award. I say this because I was expecting SCI-FI, but this is more of a detective novel set in a few years from now. But there is not that much in the way of real SCI-FI (hard core stuff). It is a quick read (listen) and the performance is very good. The story does carry you and keep you guessing. It does kind of follow the 2000 - 2010 SCI-FI winners where many of the books are more fantasy based then SCI-FI (with a few exceptions).

The author really likes to use imperatives and the performer took great glee in using them - not sure they were needed quite as much as it showed.

But I was entertained overall.

fascinating weird fiction, well performed

What about John Lee’s performance did you like?

The reading of this entertaining story was fittingly gruff/gritty, irreverently flippant when appropriate, but never cartoonish. It was a perfect fit for this combination of weird fiction/fantasy and modern noir detective tale.

Great story, decent narration

The writing style was good and the plot was incredibly engaging.

The narrator had a short, percussive style that took a bit to get used to. Sometimes voices of characters were difficult to separate.

Not worth it, but interesting premise.

The backdrop of the story is very interesting. But if you think about it for a moment, it's just absurd. So even through this detective story is a serious one. On the backdrop of the two cities.... it's hard to keep reading while you are thinking... "this premise is so unrealistic nothing makes sense"

I do give a gold star to the author for trying something different.

What The City and The City was for me

I enjoy the story more than I thought I was. The performance was great it really help to understand the book.

Really enthralling

I really, really enjoyed this. I've thought about it quite a bit after, about how we all "unsee" things so much in our daily life. Mieville is probably not for everyone and it requires a fair amount of attention when listening, although not as much as some of his other books.

Murder Mystery in a Wonderfully Unique Setting

I’ve had this book on my TBR list for years, but some comments on Goodreads reminded me of it recently. I grabbed the audiobook and was off.

This book isn’t easy to catalog. It’s basically a police procedural, but the unique setting is where the confusion—and the wonder—comes in. The book takes place in an imaginary Eastern European city that exists within another city, but the two are totally separated by allegiance. Citizens must choose to see only their own city and ignore—or “unsee”—the other. This leads to some wonderful quandaries where the book really shines. To investigate a murder, the detective must officially visit the other city and work with another police force. Meanwhile, a mysterious entity above all other authority is lurking and watching for those who “breach” the boundaries.

The characters are not the focus, and most of them are pretty bland. Yes, we want the main character to succeed on his tenacious quest for a murderer, but we never really get a sense of who he is. We’re never sure who the good guys are, either, which is difficult for an author to pull off, but Miéville does it in several of the works I’ve read. I don’t admire the author’s politics, but I do admire his writing.

John Lee does a terrific job with the narration (as usual). His pacing was excellent and his accents were good enough to differentiate the characters.

love it, but sometimes can be a bit confusing

it might be me but at time I found a few momwnts confusing , which the written book made clearer, it might be the narrative, or some mistakes on the narrator when using one or other character.

But the story is pretty good and complex, definitively weird.