The Penguin Book Of The City

For an instant after takeoff, a kind of map spread itself underneath him, and then was gone.
Yet he seemed to have come to know the city intimately; it was like, on other of his trips, a woman who, encountered in a bar and paid at the end, turns ceremony inside out, and bestows herself without small talk.

Symbol of humanity’s energy, optimism, art and civilisation, the city is the fount of intellectual and sexual freedom – a continuing source of wonder and modernity. And yet, in uncaring mood, the city can be overbearing, anonymous, alienating, even savage – with the ability to chill the soul.

The urban life, with all its challenges, pleasures and angst, is the theme of The Penguin Book of the City, an outstanding international collection of short stories selected by Robert Drewe. In their wonderful variety, they are as different – and impressive – as Paris and Los Angeles, London and Tokyo.

Deeply moving, wryly cynical, blackly humorous, these twenty-nine stories by today’s most intriguing writers will leave you gasping. Set against the backdrop of some of our great cities, they reflect the extraordinary power and mystery of the city itself.