The beguiling, intricate novella from the award-winning master of speculative fiction, China Miéville
'Superb' – The Sunday Times
'Extraordinary' – The Guardian
'Ingenious' – Financial Times
In a remote house on a hilltop, a lonely boy witnesses a 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.
When at last a stranger knocks at his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation might be over.
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?
A novella filled with beauty, terror and strangeness, This Census-Taker is a poignant and riveting exploration of memory and meaning.
“A short, dark fairytale, Kafka rewritten by David Mitchell, and may well be the best thing you'll read all year.”Alex Preston, 'Fiction highlights for 2016', Guardian
“Harrowing beauty and existential disorientation . . . it's a Miéville book, after all . . . The interpretative stakes are high enough to give you a nosebleed.”Helen Oyeyemi, The Week
“A stark and subtle fable that manages to be both lapidary and nebulous at the same time. "Haunting" does not do justice to its exquisitely eerie properties . . . This is the most poetic of Miéville's books so far . . . It can be appreciated just for its complex psychology and emotional impact - it is by far his most plangent book, suffused with a tight-lipped melancholy.”Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday
“Miéville's brain-twisting, inventive use of language pins the indefinable to the page, reading this slim book feels like gasping a lungful of air, holding it throughout the letting it out slowly, wondering what just happened. A challenging, thought-provoking read.”Metro, Metro
