Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town
By (Author) Cory Doctorow
HarperCollins Publishers
HarperVoyager
28th September 2010
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Science fiction: cyberpunk / biopunk
Speculative fiction
Family life fiction
Narrative theme: Identity / belonging
813.6
Paperback
432
Width 129mm, Height 198mm, Spine 26mm
302g
A brilliantly funny and bizarre novel from the visionary author of LITTLE BROTHER, now published for the first time in the UK.
Alan is a middle-aged entrepreneur who has devoted himself to fixing up a house in a bohemian neighbourhood of Toronto. This naturally brings him into contact with the house full of students and layabouts next door, including a young woman who, in a moment of stress, reveals to him that she has wings wings, moreover, which grow back after each attempt to cut them off.
Alan understands. He himself has a secret or two. His father is a mountain, his mother a washing machine, and among his brothers are a set of Russian nesting dolls.
Now two of the three nesting dolls, Edward and Frederick are on his doorstep well on their way to starvation because their innermost member, George, has vanished. It appears that yet another brother, Davey, whom Alan and his other siblings killed years ago, may have returned bent on revenge.
Under such circumstances it seems only reasonable for Alan to involve himself with a visionary scheme to blanket Toronto with free wireless Internet connectivity, a conspiracy spearheaded by a brilliant technopunk who builds miracles of hardware from parts scavenged from the citys dumpsters.
But Alans past wont leave him alone and Davey is only one of the powers gunning for him and his friends.
Praise for SOMEONE COMES TO TOWN, SOMEONE LEAVES TOWN:
A glorious book, but there are hundreds of those. It is more. It is a glorious book unlike any book youve ever read. Gene Wolf
Fresh and unconventional Doctorow demonstrates how memorably the outrageous and everyday can coexist Publishers Weekly
Praise for Cory Doctorow:
Fresh and full of thought-provoking ideas, a book about tomorrow that demands to be read now. The Times
Id recommend Little Brother over pretty much any book Ive read this year. Because I think itll change lives. Its a wonderful, important book Neil Gaiman
A cracking read Guardian
Cory Doctorow is a co-editor of Boing Boing and a columnist for the Guardian, Publishers Weekly, and Locus. His award-winning novel Little Brother was a New York Times bestseller. Born and raised in Canada, he lives in Los Angeles.