2009 – “The City and the City” by China Mievielle

The City and the City by China Mievielle is a science fiction classic. It’s ostensibly a crime novel and the main character is a detective but its setting is unique and is what marks it out from other books.

Tyador Borlu lives and works in the city of Beszel which is somewhere in Eastern Europe in a future world much like our own. The city, however, shares its physical location with the city of Ul Qoma. Inhabitants of one city actively ignore the people, buildings and vehicles of the other and interacting with them, apart from entering special areas where you can travel from one city to the other, will incur the wrath of Breach which is an agency which exists to prevent and punish mingling. This premise seems totally mad but the author makes it work and has carefully thought through all manner of issues and practicalities which he includes in the story without dumping lots of information on the reader – the revelations are very well done.

A body is discovered in Beszel of a foreign university researcher. It seems, however, that the young woman was killed in Ul Qoma. Borlu expects that Breach will take over the matter and is disappointed when it is determined that the crossing with the body was legal and thus he needs to investigate. He travels to Ul Qoma and has to liaise with their police service and gain the trust of people who are foreign to him although they live in the same location.

Complications further arise when it appears that the researcher was of the opinion that there was a third, undiscovered city also in the same place. Borlu has to work out if she has been killed because she is right about this, whether nationalists of either city is involved or if there is some other motive for the murder.

The book highlights how communities and societies divide into exclusive groups by exaggerating this in the two city set up. The act of “unseeing” what is in the other city reminds the reader of how people today often ignore things which are obvious in our society and how we often make conflict when there is no need for it.

The crime story is well done, Borlu is an interesting character and the setting is unusual. The author manages to pull all this together into a very satisfying novel which actually makes you believe in the premise – it’s a real achievement that he has done so.