The cities of Beszel and Ul Qoma occupy much the same physical space (somewhere in Eastern Europe) and to an uninitiated outsider seem like a single city.  The same buildings, streets, sidewalks and alleyways exist in both cities.  But through the Orwellian machinations of the Breach police and the willing participation of the inhabitants, the area is treated like two separate and distinct cities. 

The citizens of Beszel and Ul Qoma must constantly and dutifully “unsee” and ignore each other and the goings-on in the other city.  And if anyone commits the crime of breach, or interacting with the other city, the offender is quickly dragged away by a goon squad of Breach police. 

The City & The City is a tough nut to crack.  The book is officially classified under “weird fiction”, and the setting certainly lives up to that name.  The plot, however, takes the form of a mostly ho-hum police investigation whodunit. 

A young woman is murdered, and Inspector Tyador Borlu of the Extreme Crime Squad must track down the killer.  His investigation brings him from one city to the next and eventually to the gaps in between.  Many ideas are briefly hit upon, such as the existence of a hidden third city - Orciny - but the plot is mainly made interesting by the oddities that arise from dealing with two “cities” segregated solely by voluntary human inhibition and a vague threat of punishment. 

For example, Tyador and his Beszel comrades discover that the murder was actually committed in Ul Qoma and the body dumped in Beszel.  Never mind that these are the same physical location.  Tyador Borlu must go through the charade of travelling to the other city in order to continue his search for the killers, where the Ul Qoma police department is already investigating the exact same crime. 

I wanted to like The City & The City.  I usually enjoy the weird and the implausible in my fiction, and the author of Perdido Street Station deserves the benefit of the doubt.  But in the end, I just wasn’t buying it.  It is hard to believe that thousands of citizens of two cities would put up with the sort of nonsense that is taken for granted in The City & The City.  The constant unseeing.  The logistical problems (is that power line in my city?).  The inconveniences that would arise (those pedestrians in the other city won't get out of my way!). 

The author probably intends the setting to be taken as a metaphor for the way human beings separate ourselves into us-versus-them, in-groups and out-groups, and how we actively choose to ignore those not in our clan.  Or whatever.  At the very best it’s pretentious and obtuse, and I’m still not buying it.  I’ll give The City & The City 2.5 breaches out of five.