The City & The City Audiobook By China Miéville cover art

The City & The City

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The City & The City

By: China Miéville
Narrated by: John Lee
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New York Times bestselling 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.©2009 China Mieville; (P)2009 Random House Action & Adventure Classics Crime Fantasy Genre Fiction Hugo Award Literary Fiction Locus Award Mystery Traditional Detectives World Fantasy Award Fiction Exciting Mind-Bending Scary Suspenseful Detective

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

“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. Miéville 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, Miéville 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
Unique Premise • Intriguing Concept • Excellent Narration • Complex Mystery • Thought-provoking Setting • Rich Voice

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I know people love Miéville, but I find his books so very hard to get into. This one also started slowly, but around chapter 5 it picked up, and then it was great. Unusual and provocative story, great narrator.

The only Miéville book I have been able to finish

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He blends multiple genres of storytelling into one enthralling story. I’ve read it multiple times over the years.

China at his best

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Whether you like China Mievlille or not (I often find him a bit prolix and a bit excessive), this novel is stand-alone great. This book is based on an amazing idea which Mieville completely pulls off -- the two Balkan cities sharing the same geography but studiously careful not to acknowledge each other, so that the Berlin or Nicosia Wall that divides them is completely internalized -- a great first-person noirish narrator, who sustains comparison with Chandler's Marlowe and even Hammett's Continental Op, a wonderful story and a perfect ending. And John Lee's performance is perfect.

Brilliant, exciting, metaphysical slightly SF noir

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I blazed through this while illustrating posters and painting signs. Perfectly engaging. I listed in the car, at home and at the studio. never read this author before but will def. snag another title.

excellent

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The gimmick of this tale -- two nations occupying the same physical city but not acknowledging each other -- works better than most gimmicky novels because the author fills this gimmick world with interesting characters and a mystery that don't dwell only on the gimmick; they have real substance themselves. John Lee is, as always, impeccable, if not charismatic.

Makes your brain think and pulse race

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