Communion Town
Sam Thompson
Communion Town
'Have you noticed 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 Mitchell's GHOSTWRITTEN and Italo Calvino's INVISIBLE CITIES, this 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.
3.9 out of 5 based on 6 reviews
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Omniscore:
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| Classification |
Fiction |
| Genre |
General Fiction |
| Format |
Hardcover |
| Pages |
288 |
| RRP |
|
| Date of Publication |
August 2012 |
| ISBN |
978-0007454761 |
| Publisher |
Fourth Estate |
| |
'Have you noticed 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 Mitchell's GHOSTWRITTEN and Italo Calvino's INVISIBLE CITIES, this 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
The Daily Telegraph
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
“Although Communion Town is being marketed as a novel, the subtitle A City in Ten Chapters is probably a more accurate reflection of what Thompson is trying to do. At first sight these stories seem to be wholly detached from each other. As the book develops, however, sly sideways connections emerge, and we start to see the same events from different perspectives. In one story a young musician watches as someone is thrown out of a bar; 80 pages later, the scene has swung round 180 degrees, and we watch “Some skinny kid with a violin case… gawping” from the battered point of view of the person who has just been ejected ... But what puts Communion Town above most first novels is the voice behind the voices. ”
10/07/2012
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The Times
Kate Saunders
“The author is an Oxford academic; his writing is highly wrought and beautiful, with that sense of leisure and perfectionism one often finds hanging around the dreaming spires — he’s incredibly intelligent and assumes you are too. ”
21/07/2012
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The Guardian
Sam Thompson
“Thompson's 10 interlinked tales, longlisted for the Man Booker this week, deconstruct genre and myth while remaining original and superbly unsettling. ”
27/07/2012
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Times Literary Supplement
PD Smith
“As in the classic Novellen of the German Romantics, the supernatural and the uncanny are never more than a heartbeat away in these mysterious urban tales. Monstrous, “unnatural” figures stalk the streets at night, and their secret words, once uttered, transform minds and ruin lives. Wonderfully atmospheric and full of a subtle gothic horror that eats away like dry rot at the timbers of this city, Sam Thompson’s accomplished debut weaves many voices into a beguiling urban chorus.”
03/08/2012
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The Daily Mail
Amber Pearson
“Ambitious, haunting and beautifully written, Communion Town can be a frustrating read, unafraid to pose more questions than it answers. But at its best Thompson succeeds in making the familiar seem strange and wonderful.”
16/08/2012
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The Independent on Sunday
Leyla Sanai
“While the running thread of the Flaneur character, wandering the streets with ominous purpose, is intriguing, it feels like a cop-out that most of the tales end in fantasy. ”
19/08/2012
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