This Census-Taker - Hardcover

Mieville, China

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1101967323 ISBN 13: 9781101967324

Publisher: Del Rey, 2016

Synopsis

For readers of George Saunders, Kelly Link, David Mitchell, and Karen Russell, This Census-Taker is a stunning, uncanny, and profoundly moving novella from multiple-award-winning and bestselling author China Mieville.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR
In a remote house on a hilltop, a lonely boy witnesses a profoundly traumatic event. He tries and fails to flee. Left alone with his increasingly deranged parent, he dreams of safety, of joining the other children in the town below, of escape.
When at last a stranger knocks at his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation might be over.
But by what authority does this man keep the meticulous records he carries? What is the purpose behind his questions? Is he friend? Enemy? Or something else altogether?
Filled with beauty, terror, and strangeness, This Census-Taker is a poignant and riveting exploration of memory and identity.
Praise for This Census-Taker
China Mieville is a magician . . . who can both blow your mind with ideas as big as the universe and break your heart with language so precise and polished, it s like he s writing with diamonds. NPR
The book haunts the reader; what actually happened seems always just out of reach, glimpsed in shadow as it rounds a corner ahead of our vision. Los Angeles Review of Books
[Mieville s] been compared to Karen Russell and George Saunders, and rightfully so. The Huffington Post
Marvellous. The Guardian
Lingers in the mind like an unsettling dream. Financial Times
A thought-provoking fairy tale for adults . . . [This Census-Taker] resembles the narrative style, quirkiness, and plotting found in the works of Karen Russell, Aimee Bender, or Steven Millhauser. Booklist
Brief and dreamlike . . . a deceptively simple story whose plot could be taken as a symbolic representation of an aspect of humanity as big as an entire society and as small as a single soul. Kirkus Reviews"

About this title

Review

Praise for China Mieville
Even when he is orbiting somewhere in a galaxy too far away for normal human comprehension . . . Mieville is dazzling. "The New York Times"
[Mieville s] wit dazzles, his humour is lively, and the pure vitality of his imagination is astonishing. Ursula K. Le Guin"

Advance praise for "This Census-Taker"
""
A thought-provoking fairy tale for adults . . . ["This Census-Taker"] resembles the narrative style, quirkiness, and plotting found in the works of Karen Russell, Aimee Bender, or Steven Millhauser. "Booklist"
""
Brief and dreamlike . . . a deceptively simple story whose plot could be taken as a symbolic representation of an aspect of humanity as big as an entire society and as small as a single soul. "Kirkus Reviews"
Praise for China Mieville
Even when he is orbiting somewhere in a galaxy too far away for normal human comprehension . . . Mieville is dazzling. "The New York Times"
[Mieville s] wit dazzles, his humour is lively, and the pure vitality of his imagination is astonishing. Ursula K. Le Guin"

China Mieville is a magician . . . who can both blow your mind with ideas as big as the universe and break your heart with language so precise and polished, it s like he s writing with diamonds. NPR

The book haunts the reader; what actually happened seems always just out of reach, glimpsed in shadow as it rounds a corner ahead of our vision. Los Angeles Review of Books

[Mieville s] been compared to Karen Russell and George Saunders, and rightfully so. The Huffington Post

Marvellous. The Guardian

Lingers in the mind like an unsettling dream. Financial Times
A thought-provoking fairy tale for adults . . . [This Census-Taker] resembles the narrative style, quirkiness, and plotting found in the works of Karen Russell, Aimee Bender, or Steven Millhauser. Booklist

Brief and dreamlike . . . a deceptively simple story whose plot could be taken as a symbolic representation of an aspect of humanity as big as an entire society and as small as a single soul. Kirkus Reviews"

Book Description

For readers of George Saunders, Kelly Link, David Mitchell, and Karen Russell, This Census-Taker is a stunning, uncanny, and profoundly moving novella from multiple-award-winning and bestselling author China Miéville.

About this edition

• Publisher: Del Rey
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1101967323
• ISBN 13: 9781101967324
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 210