City Fiction
'The most important and most ordinary city miracle is its capacity to transform the greenhorn into just another face in the crowd. He will learn the language, make his way, become a citizen. The very hay-chewing oddity of his appearance at the outset is a tribute to the city's power to change us all...' Jonathan Raban, Soft City. Explore the transformative power of the city in our selection of urban fiction.
Showing 1-16 of 24 Results.
Michael Chabon Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay' is a heart-wrenching story of escape, love and comic-book heroes set in Prague, New York... | Samuel Selvon; Nasta Susheila A novel of immigrant life in London in the 1950s. |
Henry Roth; Alfred Kazin David Schearl arrives in New York in his mother's arms to begin his new life as an immigrant. David is hated by his father, but is fiercely loved and protected... | Rohinton Mistry Set in mid-1970s India, a subtle and compelling narrative about four unlikely characters who come together in circumstances no one could have foreseen soon after the government declares a 'State... |
Italo Calvino; William Weaver Marco Polo conjures up cities of magical times for his host, the Chinese ruler Kublai Khan, but gradually it becomes clear that he is actually describing one city: Venice. | Shaun Tan Award-winning author/illustrator Shaun Tan brings us a powerful and evocative wordless graphic novel. |
Colette; Antonia White Claudine is in despair, having left her beloved Montigny for a new life in Paris. But her instinctive curiosity gradually leads to an awakened interest in the city. She records... | Colum McCann Winner of the National Book Award and a New York Times bestseller |
Armistead Maupin A naive young secretary, fresh out of Cleveland, tumbles headlong into a brave new world of laundromat Lotharios, pot-growing landladies, cut throat debutantes, and Jockey Shorts dance contests. The saga... | Jhumpa Lahiri Pulitzer-winning, scintillating studies in yearning and exile from a Bengali Bostonian woman of immense promise. |
Andrea Levy In this delicately wrought and profoundly moving, multi-award winning novel, Andrea Levy handles the weighty themes of empire, prejudice, war and love, with a lightness of touch and a generosity... | Jay McInerney You are at a nightclub talking to a girl with a shaved head. The club is either Heartbreak or the Lizard Lounge. So begins our hero's trawl through the brightly... |
Aleksandar Hemon The unprovoked murder of a Russian Jewish immigrant ignites a dazzling novel of flight, emigration and the meaning of home | J. M. Coetzee A student in 1950s South Africa has long been plotting an escape from his country. Studying mathematics, reading poetry, saving money, he tries to ensure that when he arrives in... |
Jonathan Raban One of the classics of travel writing, this is a prescient exploration of the individual's relationship with urban living | Brian Chikwava When he lands in Harare North, our unnamed protagonist carries nothing but a cardboard suitcase full of memories and a longing to be reunited with his childhood friend, Shingi. He... |