The City and the City by China Mieville. 312 p.
It's impossible to talk about what makes this book special without spoilers. The bare-bones outline is: "Inspector Tyador Borlu attempts to solve a woman's murder, but his investigation is complicated by the touchy political situation with a neighboring city. What Tyador discovers will change his life forever." That's all true. But the really cool thing about this book is the setting. Tyador's city, Beszel, and its neighboring city, Ul Qoma, occupy the same space. Some street are only in Beszel, some only in Ul Qoma, but many areas are "crosshatched," where one building may in Beszel but its next-door neighbor is in Ul Qoma. Members of the cities are taught from birth to unsee the other city; if you're in Beszel, you're not allowed to notice the people or buildings in Ul Qoma, even if they're right next to you. If you touch something in the other city without going through the border crossing legally, or even look at someone in the other city, you're considered to be in Breach. "Breach" is also what they call the people who show up to deal with you if you commit a breach--they're the bogeymen, essentially. Since Tyador's murdered woman seemed to be working with rebel groups who want to unify the two cities into one, he has to deal with Beszel politics and Ul Qoman politics and, eventually, Breach itself. It's a great example of an author positing a situation and then working his story around the premise's ramifications. Very impressive.
That sounds soooo cool. Adding it to my reading list....
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