The Last Days of New Paris

In a Paris devastated by a bomb that distorted reality itself, the Nazis still patrol the streets in 1950. Yet they are far from the only danger to rebels like Thibault. The S-bomb, as it became known, set loose bizarre manifestations. These "manifs" might be plants that swallow airplanes or a woman merged with a bicycle. Thibault works on the side of the surrealists, monitoring the manifs while dodging Nazis and the demons they summon from hell. He encounters a photographer named Sam who is documenting the manifs of New Paris, but she appears to have a deeper purpose in France. As is typical for Miéville (Perdido Street Station) and his dizzying love of language, readers may want to have a dictionary on hand, and in this case an art history encyclopedia would not go amiss. While readers don't have to catch every surrealist reference as it occurs (there is an index to them at the back), some knowledge of the movement will probably enhance the reading experience.