Try free for 2 months

  • The City & The City

  • By: China Mieville
  • Narrated by: John Lee
  • Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (172 ratings)

1 credit a month to use on any title, yours to keep (you’ll use your first credit on this title).
Stream or download thousands of included titles.
Access to exclusive deals and discounts.
AUD $16.45/mo after 2 months. Renews automatically. Cancel anytime.
The City & The City cover art

The City & The City

By: China Mieville
Narrated by: John Lee
Try for $0.00

AUD $16.45/mo after 2 months. Renews automatically. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $26.99

Buy Now for $26.99

Pay using voucher balance (if applicable) then card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice and authorise Audible to charge your designated credit card or another available credit card on file.

Publisher's Summary

New York Times best-selling 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 Inspector Tyador Borlof the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he investigates, the evidence points to conspiracies far stranger and more deadly than anything he could have imagined.

Borl 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, Borl is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of rabid nationalists intent on destroying their neighbouring 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

What listeners say about The City & The City

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    97
  • 4 Stars
    54
  • 3 Stars
    14
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    6
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    107
  • 4 Stars
    37
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    89
  • 4 Stars
    39
  • 3 Stars
    18
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    6

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Not a mundane police procedural

Two cities which occupy the same physical space, overlapping, but never mingling. What separates them is not a conventional border, although there is an official passport control, but the social barriers set up by both the custom of "un-seeing" and the strict "breach" law that enforces it. So a person standing next to you but in the other city, by social consent, must be "unseen".
Throw into this a murder that involves both countries and you have - Philip K Dick meets a police procedural.
Very original and very enjoyable. A metaphor for modern life.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic Journey to the Weird

Thoroughly enjoyed the strange premise and uncovering the mystery. Highly recommended, eager to read some more Mieville after this!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Awful

Struggled for the first hour on this book which lacked a decent story line before giving up. I think that any book that can't garner any interest within the first 10% is pretty shocking. Much of what I listened to had nothing to do with the book and wasn't even 'setting the scene'. The initial concept of a 'city and a city' had attracted me but the author unfortunately didn't have the skill to deliver.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Boring boring boring

4 hrs in and story going nowhere. Wasted 4 hrs of my life I'll never get back.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A tale of two cities (in one)

Interesting concept of living in one place that is two places. Seeing and unseeing people and things. An interesting murder mystery with a few twists and turns along the way. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great thriller with a weird setting. recommended

This is a detective story in a weird city, not SciFi, but not our world either. understanding the world is almost as fun as unraveling the mystery.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Great Idea - Poorly Executed

Loved the narrator, excellently engaging.

The story was just an underwhelming mess. Sure, the idea of overlapping cities was cool, but why on Earth would any nation do such a thing? What were the benefits of running this bizarre urban arrangement? The commentary on real life class divisions was poorly developed, almost absent.

All we were left with was a pretty vanilla detective story, with a predictable twist, packed with explanations of how this nonsensical world works.. so disappointing.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wow! So different from the series

... but better. Full of descriptions of place and culture, and a riveting storyline that keeps curling back on itself. I loved it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Appalling

quite possibly the worst book I have ever experienced, based on a ludicrous concept it was terrible from start to finish. John Lee awesome as ever

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • V
  • 09-07-2020

i loved this book

the concept was just fascinating
would definitely listen to this again, in a heartbeat.
thank you china for writting it
thank you john for bringing it to life

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.