The multi-award-winning China Mieville has been called 'the equal of David Mitchell or Zadie Smith' (Scotland on Sunday), whose 'inventiveness and precision is awesome' (Independent), and who writes with 'an imagination of immense power' (Guardian). In this extraordinary series of stories, defying definitions and literary stereotyping, he once again proves why he 'is one of the most interesting and promising writers to appear in the last few years in any genre' (Carlos Ruiz Zafon). In these stories, glistening icebergs float above urban horizons; a burning stag runs wild through the city; the ruins of industry emerge unsteadily from the sea; and the abandoned generations in a decayed space-elevator look not up at the stars but down at the Earth. Ranging from portraits of childhood to chilling ghost stories, from dystopian visions to poignant evocations of uncanny love, with beautiful prose and melancholy wit, this breath-taking collection poses searching questions of what it is to be human in an unquiet world. It is a humane and unsentimental investigation of our society, our world, and ourselves.

Author Biography

China Mieville has lived all his life in London. His first novel, King Rat, received superb reviews and was nominated for fantasy awards, and his second, Perdido Street Station, astonished the literary world with its imaginative power and sheer inventiveness. It won the Arthur C Clarke award and the British Fantasy Award in 2001. The Scar followed that book in 2002, and in 2004, China's fourth novel, Iron Council was published. It won the Arthur C Clarke award for 2005. His most recent work is Looking for Jake.