The City of Woven Streets

LoveReading Says

Highly Recommended.

Literary and crime fiction publishers have often looked beyond English for great writing and there has also always been a strong tradition of SF and fantasy outside the English language. Lately UK and US publishers have been making renewed efforts to translate some of this for our markets. Itaranta is a Finnish writer whose artful and beautiful written work sits on the border between SF and Fantasy. This is her second novel and it’s a cracker – a book of almost hypnotic beauty set in a dreamlike world of a city that is constantly awash with ebbing and flowing tides. Grounding the narrative is the story of Eliana; a young women who benefits from the advantages of being close to the House of weavers, the ruling class of the city who transmit the messages, the culture and the history of this society.

But this is a world that shares some of our worries; there are uneasy hints of ecological collapse and political repression washing up around Eliana’s world and the arrival into it of a strange girl who bears Eliana’s name tattooed on her wrist precipitates a dark turn of events that drives this novel. Fans of Margaret Atwood will adore this book as will those who revel in China Mieville’s extraordinary imagination. Itaranta is a name to watch.

Simon Spanton

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