From The Bookshelves: The City and The City by China Miéville

This past weekend I drove from California to Oklahoma. Along the way, I listened to the audio book version of The City and The City by China Miéville.

I picked up this book on a recommendation from immprofs Lenni Benson (NYLS) and César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández (Ohio State) who referenced the book while commenting on someone’s WIP at last May’s immprof conference in MN.

Normally, I’d provide the publisher’s blurb about the text, but it doesn’t do the book justice. Let me try.

On one level, this is a straightforward detective mystery. Someone dies and the entirety of the book is devoted to finding the killer.

But the book is more fundamentally unique than that synopsis would suggest. It is about two entwined cities that are each their own country and the lengths to which each nation goes in order to preserve their own sovereignty.

Massive kudos to Miéville for this highly unusual tale. It is absolutely worth your time to pick up during the holiday break. An absolute gem.

10/10

-KitJ