From this article:
There is a short clip on that page where Mieville talks about the book. CM is a writer whose interviews I bookmark and refer to repeatedly, because I find the way he talks about ideas and stories to be very inspiring. I'm looking forward to this new book very much.
When China Miéville delivered the manuscript to his newest novel, entitled The City & The City, I was much more than a little surprised. In fact, I was flabbergasted. First of all, I had no idea that he had been writing it. And secondly, he had just delivered a different manuscript—the one I had been expecting—the day before.
His reasons for doing so were simple, and they had nothing to do with proving that he was superhuman. China’s mother, who was terminally ill at the time, had always loved police procedurals—so China set out to write one as a kind of gift to her. But knowing that his reputation is as a fantasy writer, he wasn’t sure what his publishers or his audience would make of his attempt. He studied up by reading as much as he could in the mystery and thriller genre, and then he wrote the book during breaks from writing the fantasy that I was expecting from him. It’s an amazing feat by anyone’s standards.
And what's equally amazing is the job he did. As soon as I started reading it, I knew The City & The City would be the next book we published by China.
His reasons for doing so were simple, and they had nothing to do with proving that he was superhuman. China’s mother, who was terminally ill at the time, had always loved police procedurals—so China set out to write one as a kind of gift to her. But knowing that his reputation is as a fantasy writer, he wasn’t sure what his publishers or his audience would make of his attempt. He studied up by reading as much as he could in the mystery and thriller genre, and then he wrote the book during breaks from writing the fantasy that I was expecting from him. It’s an amazing feat by anyone’s standards.
And what's equally amazing is the job he did. As soon as I started reading it, I knew The City & The City would be the next book we published by China.
There is a short clip on that page where Mieville talks about the book. CM is a writer whose interviews I bookmark and refer to repeatedly, because I find the way he talks about ideas and stories to be very inspiring. I'm looking forward to this new book very much.