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The City & The City
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The City & The City (2009) (edit title/settings)

by China Miéville (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

New York Times bestselling author China Mieville 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... read more

Summary edit see section history

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... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

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.

Characters/People edit see section history

  • Tyador Borlú: The novel's protagonist, Inspector in the Beszel police force, Extreme Crime Squad.
  • Lizbyet Corwi: Constable in Beszel police force, assigned to assist Borlú in the investigation
  • Biszaya: One of Borlú's girlfriends. The journalist.
  • Marya Fulana: The name Borlú gives the dead girl.
  • Sariska: One of Borlú's girlfriends. A historian with whom he often talks through aspects of his cases.
  • Ashil: One of the Breach
  • Yallya: Dhatt's wife.
  • Besźe Geary: The dead girl, aka Byela Mar, aka Marya. She is introduced first in the novel as Fulana Detail, the English equivalent of Jane Doe.
  • Qussim Dhatt: Senior Detective in the Ul Qoma police. Assigned to help Tyador Borlú solve a murder case.
  • David Bowden: Author who wrote the book Between the City and the City and lives in Ul Qoma
  • Yolanda Rodriguez: Mahalia's best friend at the university
  • John Geary: Mahalia's Father
  • Mrs. Geary: Mahalia's Mother
  • Doctor UlHuan: Another academic on the site of the archaeological dig
  • James Thacker: Representative from the U.S. Embassy in Beszel
  • Aikam Tsueh: Security guard at the dig
  • Mikyael Khurusch: The owner of a gray van seen at the scene from which Mahalia's body was dumped.
  • Ramira Yaszek: Besźel patrolman skilled in questioning witnesses
  • Bardo Naustin: Besźel police detective who can become abusive during questioning witnesses.
  • Yorjavic: One of the True Citizens.
  • Harkad Gosz: Lawyer for the True Citizens
  • Dahar Jaris: Unificationist
  • Professor Isabelle Nancy: Mahalia's advisor/supervisor. Canadian.
  • Major Yorj Syedr: Member of the Oversight Committee, a leader of the National Bloc
  • Ian Croft: Regional head of CorIntech
  • Mikhel Buric: Member of the Oversight Committee, Social Democrat
  • Briamiv: Besźel patrolman who skills are not thought very highly by Borlú
  • Stepen Shukman: Besźel forensic pathologist
  • Hamd Hamzinic: Shukman's assistant
  • Gadlem: Besźel police commissar, Borlú superior.
  • Pall Drodin: Unificationist and archivist is interviewed by Borlú and Corwi regarding his knowledge of Byela Mar
  • Yavid Nyisernu: Besź under-minister for Culture and Oversight Committee chair.
  • Major Yorj Syedr: Oversight Committee Councillor and leader of the National Bloc, a political party in Besźel
  • Harkad Gosz: Barrister for the True Citizens
  • Dyegesztan: Besźel constable and Borlú's driver and escort to Ul Qoma
  • Aikam Tsueh: Security guard for the Bol Ye’an dig.
  • Kai Buidze: Chief Security guard for the Bol Ye’an dig.
Show all 37 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “We would never call inexplicable little insights 'hunches,' for fear of drawing the universe's attention. But they happened, and you knew you had been in the proximity of one that had come through if you saw a detective kiss his or her fingers and touch his or her chest where a pendant to Warsha, patron saint of inexplicable inspirations, would, theoretically, hang.”
  • “From that historically brief quite opaque moment, came the chaos of our material history, an anarchy of chronology, of mismatched remnants that delighted and horrified investigators.”
  • “Nothing is still like the dead are still.”

Setting & Locations edit see section history

  • Byatsialic: East Besźel, where body of Mahalia was discovered.
  • Bol Ye’an: The largest and richest archeology site for both cities located in western Ul Qoma.
  • Orciny: The mythical city hidden between the two cities of Besźel and Ul Qoma believed to exist in the disputed zone--areas where Besźel believes to be Ul Qoma and vice versa.
  • Copula Hall: Copula Hall is a crosshatch building which goes by the same name in both cities, thus forming a junction between them. Home for the Oversight Committee.
  • Ul Qoma: One of the two cities that co-exist in the same physical space.
  • Besźel: One of the two cities that exist in the same physical area.Home of Inspector Tyador Borlú and the Extreme Crime Squad.

Organizations edit see section history

  • Extreme Crime Squad: Besź police group assigned to investigate particularly brutal or complex crimes
  • Oversight Committee: 42 member governing committee (21 Besź and 21 Ul Qoma) for both cities.
  • Breach: A secretive organization not aligned with either Besźel or Ul Qoma that may intervene when breaches between the two cities become problematic.
  • True Citizens: A supremacist organization who believe that Besźel is the one true city; street soldiers for the NatBloc.
  • Precursor Age: Also known as pre-Cleavage which is the age when Besźel and Ul Qoma were one city.
  • Qoma First: Ul Qoma Unificationists

First Sentence edit see section history

I could not see the street or much of the estate.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Part One: Beszel 1
Part Two: Qoma 127
Part Three: Breach 239
Breach Coda 305

Glossary edit see section history

  • Illitan: The language of Ul Qoma
  • Besź: The language of Besźel
  • grosstopically: A term unique to the two cities, used to indicate coinciding locations in 2 planes. The same physical location but in a different city
  • insile: Someone who beaches and evades Breach to live successfully between the cities
  • breach: Verb. To cross over, either with your one's physical self or one's attention, to the city one does not reside in
  • crosshatch: Places where a physical location exists in both cities at the same time. These might be streets, parks or squares where denizens of both cities walk alongside one another, albeit unseen. Areas that exist in both cities usually go under different names in each one. Copula Hall is the exception. It goes by the same name in both cities, thus forming a junction between them.
  • topolganger: The grosstopic reflection of an object or place in the other city
  • total: Areas that are entirely in one city - the city in which the observer currently resides
  • alter: Areas are completely in the other city, and so must be completely avoided and ignored
  • dissensi: Disputed zones - places that Besźel thinks are Ul Qoma’s and Ul Qoma Besźel’s.
  • bruise: Black and white police cars
  • policzai: "police" in Besź
  • Unseeing: Consciously not perceiving the activity of the other city.
Show all 13 glossary entries

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 59 of 159 in Fantasy Book Review Top 100 fantasy books of all time. (community list)
This book is in 2011-2012 Iowa High School Battle of the Books. (authoritative list)
This is book 2 of 14 in 2010 Award Winners. (community list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. China Miéville (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Del Rey Ballantine Books
Country: New York, NY., USA
Publication Date: Jun-2009
ISBN: 9780345497512
Page Count: 312

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

  • Copyright Status: Public Domain
  • Library of Congress: PR6063.I265 C58 2009 FT MEADE
  • Dewey: 823.914

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Gorky Park
  • 1984
  • The Metamorphosis
  • The Trial
  • Philip K. Dick: Four Novels of The 1960s
  • The Big Sleep
  • The Long Goodbye
  • The Maltese Falcon

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