Communion Town: A City in Ten Chapters

Thompson, Sam

ISBN 10: 1620401657 / ISBN 13: 9781620401651

Published by Bloomsbury USA, 2013

About this Item

Gently read. May have name of previous ownership, or ex-library edition. Binding tight; spine straight and smooth, with no creasing; covers clean and crisp. Minimal signs of handling or shelving. 100% GUARANTEE! Shipped with delivery confirmation, if you're not satisfied with purchase please return item! Ships USPS Media Mail.

Seller Inventory # OTV.1620401657.VG

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Communion Town: A City in Ten Chapters
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1620401657
• ISBN 13: 9781620401651
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: very_good

About this title

Synopsis

Each of us conjures our own city, one of many incarnations; a place throbbing with so many layers, meanings, and hidden corners cannot be the same for any two citizens.
Communion Town calls to mind David Mitchell's Ghostwritten, Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, and China Miéville's The City & The City, but is uniquely its own. This incandescent novel maps an imaginary city and explores the lives of its outcasts and scapegoats. Each chapter is told from the perspective of a different citizen-defining the city itself as a character, both protagonist and antagonist-and each is told in a different genre, from a hardboiled detective story to steampunk to gothic horror, displaying the great range of Sam Thompson's literary ability. As the novel unfolds in different neighborhoods, we encounter a lovelorn folksinger, a repressed detective, a slaughterhouse worker, a lost tourist, a bon vivant, and a ghost. From their lonely voices we gather the many-faceted story of the city: a place imagined differently by each citizen as he or she searches for connection, transformation, or escape.

About the Author

Sam Thompson was born in 1978. He read English at Trinity College, Dublin, and is now a tutor at St. Anne's College, Oxford. He also writes for the Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books, and the Guardian. This is his first novel. He lives in Oxford with his wife and two sons.