This Census-Taker - China Miéville

For readers of George Saunders, Kelly Link, David Mitchell, and Karen Russell, This Census-Taker is a stunning, uncanny, and profoundly moving novella from multiple-award-winning and bestselling author China Miéville. nNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR n n In a remote house on a hilltop, a lonely boy witnesses a profoundly traumatic event. He tries--and fails--to flee. Left alone with his increasingly deranged parent, he dreams of safety, of joining the other children in the town below, of escape. n n When at last a stranger knocks at his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation might be over. n n But by what authority does this man keep the meticulous records he carries? What is the purpose behind his questions? Is he friend? Enemy? Or something else altogether? n n Filled with beauty, terror, and strangeness, This Census-Taker is a poignant and riveting exploration of memory and identity. n nPraise for This Census-Taker n nChina Miéville is a magician . . . who can both blow your mind with ideas as big as the universe and break your heart with language so precise and polished, it's like he's writing with diamonds.--NPR n n The book haunts the reader; what actually happened seems always just out of reach, glimpsed in shadow as it rounds a corner ahead of our vision.--Los Angeles Review of Books n n [Mieville's] been compared to Karen Russell and George Saunders, and rightfully so.--The Huffington Post n n Marvellous.--The Guardian n n Lingers in the mind like an unsettling dream.--Financial Times n n A thought-provoking fairy tale for adults . . . [This Census-Taker] resembles the narrative style, quirkiness, and plotting found in the works of Karen Russell, Aimee Bender, or Steven Millhauser.--Booklist n n Brief and dreamlike . . . a deceptively simple story whose plot could be taken as a symbolic representation of an aspect of humanity as big as an entire society and as small as a single soul.--Kirkus Reviewsn