We recently spied a posting on the Translated Fiction website about Oxygen Books'
city-lit series. While they have a publishing schedule for their favourite fiction, non-fiction, blogs, and journalism, we don't. The following is a short list of the Meet At The Gate editorial team's most memorable books that are set in a city.
Dublin:
Ulysses (1922)
Not least because the sequence of events depicted actually trace a ‘U’ shape in the geography of Dublin.
Dan
Dublin:
A Star Called Henry (1999)
What makes this particularly striking as a novel set in a city is the way that Dublin itself is portrayed. Roddy Doyle makes it a full-fledged character with its sewers and underground acting as arteries.
Evan Glasgow:
Lanark (1981)
Partly a crazed futuristic sci-fi, and part realist memoir of growing up in a tenement, one of the central characters that holds the book together is Glasgow itself.
Francis Venice:
A History of Venice (1981)
I can’t say enough good things about this extremely wordy piece of publishing that brings to life the artistic and political history of Venice and this city is on the very top of my places to visit in Europe list entirely because of this book.
Andrea Barcelona:
The Shadow of the Wind (2001)
The alleyways, the Cemetery of Forgotten Books and interiors are woven into an imagined city so rich with sinister atmosphere, you can’t help but be fascinated by it.
Stephanie Glasgow:
Fresh (2007)
Living in west central Scotland brings the drama and dark humour of Sean’s life and times far too close for comfort. And this sort of discomfort gives me the chills and thrills.
Andrea
Spex
Date: Mon Dec 01, 2008 09:31 AM GMT
'The Devil in the White City' by Erik Larson is set in Chicago during the 1893 World's Fair. History and lurid details of a serial killer's modus operandi - my two favourite topics.
AdrianMarkJohnson
Date: Fri Nov 28, 2008 02:23 PM GMT
Ok, this list must surely grow, here's two others, for the pot:
'44 Scotland Street' by Alexander McCall Smith - humorous, wry and a lovely intro to a particular sunny side of Edinburgh
'What was lost' by Catherine O'Flynn - a piece set in and around a shopping centre in the West Midlands of England.
'Nice Work' and 'Small World' by David Lodge and set in a world not unlike Birmingham.
Let the list grow!
