Fantasy · TenseA police inspector investigates a murder in Besźel, a city that shares its space with Ul Qoma
The City & the City
Two cities in the same place, and people trained not to see each other
Macmillan published the novel in the UK on 15 May 2009, a hardcover of 312 pages. Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad in the fictional city-state of Besźel investigates the murder of Mahalia Geary, a foreign student. Besźel and its twin city Ul Qoma occupy the same geographic space, and their citizens are required to unsee each other. Miéville wrote it as a gift for his terminally ill mother, a fan of police procedurals. BBC Two broadcast a four-episode series in April 2018.
More about this book
Who
Inspector Tyador Borlú and the murder victim Mahalia Geary.
World
The twin city-states of Besźel and Ul Qoma, in the same space.
What makes it different
It tied with The Windup Girl for the 2010 Hugo. It also won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the BSFA Award, the Locus Award and the World Fantasy Award.
Feel
Cold and puzzling.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- The City & the CityWikipedia