The City and the City is a fantastic thought experiment. The world building is exquisite. Unfortunately, the characters feel underdeveloped. This book takes its queues from hard-boiled detective fiction so for most of the book, I was willing to give this a pass and focus on the extraordinary idea of two overlapping cities and the spaces between them.

However, one crucial turn of events depended on a character’s motivations. Because the character was little more than a plot device, I found these motivations unconvincing. This, in turn, made for an unfulfilling narrative.

Nevertheless, I would recommend this book. It has a lot to say about borders, language and identity, and it raises fascinating questions about how these affect the way we perceive the world.

I will be thinking about the questions raised by The City and the City for a long time, but the characters are unlikely to stay with me.