Summer Arts Preview

Available May 26

Mieville writes science fiction, but hybridized as if in some hideous Dr. Moreau-style genetic experiment with horror and literary fiction and just a trace, not too much, of political theory. His utter uniqueness as a writer has made him a cult icon, and also probably kept him off mainstream best-seller lists. With his new novel Mieville has spliced even more DNA into his fictional genome: it's a stone-cold police procedural, which might actually make him a bit more user-friendly. The twist is the setting: The City and the City takes place in Beszel, a city which has a ghostly twin of itself that exists in the same space, but shifted just slightly into another dimension. The inhabitants can see and hear each other — but beware the places where the cities actually touch.

See The All TIME 100 Novels

TIME's 100 Most Influential People: Did Your Pick Make the Cut?