Communion Town

(Paperback)

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Description

The Man Booker longlisted novel is a meditation on how each of us conjures up our own city.
Every city is made of stories: stories that meet and diverge, stories of the commonplace and the strange, of love and crime, of ghosts and monsters.

Reminiscent of David Mitchells Ghostwritten and Italo Calvinos Invisible Cities, the Man Booker-longlisted Communion Town is the story of a place that never looks the same way twice: a place imagined anew by each citizen who walks through the changing streets among voices half-heard, signs half-glimpsed and desires half-acknowledged.

This is the story of a city.

Reviews

Subtly and deftly, Thompson succeeds in capturing the experience of city life Thompson can make a sentence sing in a way that is uniquely his own Turning the pages of COMMUNION TOWN you become aware that here is a new writer working out what he can do, and realising that he can do anything Telegraph

Ambitious, haunting and beautifully written Thompson succeeds in making the familiar seem strange and wonderful Daily Mail

A book packed with powerful, memorable writing Thompsons engrossing, memorable debut is worthy of close, appreciative reading not just from Man Booker judges, but everyone Sunday Times

Thompson's ten interlinked tales, longlisted for the Man Booker this week, deconstruct genre and myth while remaining original and superbly unsettling Guardian

His writing is highly wrought and beautiful, with that sense of leisure and perfectionism one often finds hanging around the dreaming spires hes incredibly intelligent and assumes you are too. As the ten stories unfold youre left with a vivid picture of an imaginary city with its own character The Times

This impressive debut captures a citys shifting personality through ten stories. With unanswered questions and Gothic tinges, its kaleidoscopic approach blends into one bewitching picture Sunday Telegraph

Subtly linked tales details are joyous Independent on Sunday

Wonderfully atmospheric and full of a subtle gothic horror that eats away like dry rot at the timbers of this city, Sam Thompsons accomplished debut weaves many voice into a beguiling urban chorus TLS

The 19th century motif of the flaneur basically a figure who experiences a city through the act of walking is revived to creepily dreamy effect Metro

Dreamlike, gnarly and present, COMMUNION TOWN shifts like a city walker, from street to street China Miville

COMMUNION TOWN is one of those rare creatures a first novel that combines ambition with humanity. It is a strange, remarkable work Tash Aw

Author Bio

Sam Thompson was born in 1978. He read English at Trinity College, Dublin, and is now a tutor at St Anne's College, Oxford. He also writes for the Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books and the Guardian. He lives in Oxford with his wife and son.