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Zoo City [Paperback]

Lauren Beukes (Author)

4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (50 customer reviews)

RRP:	�7.99
Price:	�5.59 & FREE Delivery in the UK on orders over �10. Details
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Book Description

Publication Date: 2 Sep 2010

Zinzi December finds people. Even if they don t want to be found like missing pop starlet Songweza. Trouble is, when you go turning over stones and digging up secrets it isn t long before the real truth comes to light. A truth the local crime lord, dark magician and beast master, will kill to keep hidden. In Lauren Beukes shattered city, magic is horribly real and the criminal classes sport symbiotically linked animals. A stunningly original urban fantasy.

#outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; } Zinzi December finds people. Even if they don t want to be found like missing pop starlet Songweza. Trouble is, when you go turning over stones and digging up secrets it isn t long before the real truth comes to light. A truth the local crime lord, dark magician and beast master, will kill to keep hidden. In Lauren Beukes shattered city, magic is horribly real and the criminal classes sport symbiotically linked animals. A stunningly original urban fantasy.

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Product details

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Angry Robot (2 Sep 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0857660543
ISBN-13: 978-0857660541
Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 19.8 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (50 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 103,615 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Lauren Beukes Page

Lauren Beukes is a novelist, TV scriptwriter, documentary maker, comics
writer and occasional journalist.

She won the 2011 Arthur C Clarke Award for her novel Zoo City, set in a
fantastical Johannesburg where guilt manifests as spirit animal familiars. Her
previous works include Moxyland, a dystopian cyberpunk thriller set in Cape
Town under corporate apartheid.

She helped create South Africa's first half-hour animated TV show, URBO: The
Adventures of Pax Afrika, and has written kids animated shows for Disney
UK and Millimages in France.

Follow her on Twitter: @laurenbeukes

Photo © Casey Crafford

Product Description

Review

Lauren Beukes is Raymond Chandler crossed with Jeff Noon. I loved it, it's going to be huge. --Paul Cornell

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4.2 out of 5 stars

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic in more ways than one 2 Oct 2012

By The Lightning Tree

Format:Paperback

(Review cross-posted from my blog, The Lightning Tree:[...]

Lauren Beukes's second novel, Zoo City, won the Arthur C. Clarke award last year - and in this humble blogger's opinion, the accolade is definitely deserved. A more gripping, imaginative, and smart read you would be hard-pressed to find. Zoo City has the works: witty, well-honed prose, a tough, wily protagonist, an exciting thriller-style plot, and a central concept that is fantastic in more ways than one. But this novel is also far from formulaic. Plunging us into the perilous, grimy warren of the Zoo City ghetto - an alternate version of the Hillbrow district of Johannesburg - Beukes conjures a twisting tale that, whilst flavoured as a noir thriller, is made unique and multi-faceted by its interweaving with the novel's magical concept. For Zoo City is populated by the `animalled', also known as `zoos' or, if you wants to get technical about it, `aposymbiotes': people who have, by dint of a former crime, come into possession of a shavi - a magical animal that accompanies them everywhere, and with it a magical talent (also called a shavi). These animals are at once companions and brands of criminality, and the aposymbiotes of Beukes's alternate world find themselves the victims of personal and institutional prejudice. The onset of this phenomenon, during the 1980s, marks the divergence of the world of Zoo City with our own.

The protagonist, Zinzi December (great name, no?) is `animalled', going about her various (and often questionable) business with a large sloth draped across her back or stuffed into her bag. His name is... Sloth. And Sloth, incidentally, is a wonderful character in his own right - endearing and timid, he is often disapproving or frightened by his mistress's actions. For Zinzi is no shrinking violet: sharp and hard-assed, she is an ex-addict-turned-conwoman, struggling to pay off the huge debt she owes to her dealer while also maintaining a relationship with her lover, Beno�t. But further complications await her when, because of her own shavi which allows her to track down lost objects, she is employed by an ageing music industry don to find a missing person. Zinzi might be used to Zoo City's ways, but the search takes her into places she never wanted to go, and dredges up more than she ever anticipated.

There were many things that made this book stand out for me. Firstly, there's the premise of the `aposymbiotes'. Comparisons have been drawn with the daemons of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, but Beukes's creatures have an entirely different feel about them. The magic in Beukes's novel is scruffy, dingy, down-and-dirty stuff - these animals may be magical but they're as real as they come, complete with matted fur, chipped claws, and gummy, infected eyes. The concept of the shavi is also entirely bound up with the cultural context of the novel: Zoo City is entrenched within South Africa, its plot, its characters, and its ideas inextricable from that location, resonating with its social and political history. Even if, like me, you don't know much about SA, it's still clear how very situated Beukes's story is. What's more, it has encouraged me to find out more about SA (not that you need to do this to enjoy the book) - and that can never be a bad thing.

Secondly, there's Beukes's brilliant writing. The majority of the story is told in the first person, from Zinzi's perspective, and Beukes brings Zinzi's voice to life with zest, humour, and downright fantastic prose. Beukes's style is intelligent, clear, snappy, and often very funny as the reader piggybacks through Zoo City's streets with Zinzi as their cynical guide. And yet, Zinzi is no `tough chick' stereotype. Beukes has written a thoroughly rounded and fascinating character, and throughout her adventures we also witness her dealing with her feelings for Beno�t - the relationship played out in an unsentimental yet affecting way - and also with her deep-set guilt. For, of course, as Zinzi has a shavi, she must have committed some crime... and allusions to a terrible incident involving her brother hover perpetually in the back of her mind, emerging into the narrative in fragments when her guilt comes to the fore.

But Beukes fleshes out her story even further by inserting other perspectives into the novel. Including news articles as chapter epigraphs is by no means a new idea (a great example is in Tad Williams's Otherland saga - whose protagonist is also South African, incidentally), but Beukes pulls it off with panache. Indeed, these addenda are more than epigraphs, as Beukes donates whole chapters to them. What's more, they are not only news stories, but also email transcripts, DVD blurbs and viewer comments, and prisoners' testimonies. This device allows Beukes to step outside of her first person narrator, giving readers a wider glimpse of life in this alternative Earth, and also nods to the vast, varied textual output of our modern, technological world - and to what seemingly small things - like DVD blurbs - can tell us about a society and its views. For me, these interjections also served to highlight just how talented Beukes is. Adapting her writing to these many different voices, with their different biases and agendas, with such ease and authority, Beukes shows that she's a writer with intimidating skills.

As to Zoo City's plot, it wasn't what I expected - and was the better for it. I won't go into detail, as I don't want to spoil the surprises that Beukes springs upon the reader. I'll just say that if you combine magic, murder, and the music industry; sift in crumbling blocks of flats and street gunfights; mix with dread of a strange, black `Undertow' waiting to claim the `animalled'; add the blood of a shavi... Well, then you get at least a flavour of what Zoo City is. But to get the full, strange, bursting taste, you're gonna have to read it. Read more ›

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22 of 25 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Improved Second Novel 29 Sep 2010

By Quicksilver TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine Review (What's this?)

This book is Lauren Beukes' second cyberpunk novel. As with her first novel, Moxyland, 'Zoo City' is set in an alternate-world South Africa. 'Moxyland', though intriguing, failed to sustain my interest all the way through. It flitted repeatedly from character to character, all of whom I struggled to empathise with. 'Zoo City' is an altogether more satisfying read.

This time, consistency is brought to the novel by use of single voice. Zinzi is a trying-to-reform addict, who once upon a time, had a bright future ahead of her. All that remains now is a dark and troubled past. The novel's central premise is interesting; those who have sinned are given an animal familiar, which they must succour and sustain. This obvious sign of guilt (in some cases, literally a monkey on the back), makes these 'animalled' sinners social pariahs. They are corralled in a decrepit ghetto known as 'Zoo City'. Alongside these animal familiars comes a supernatural ability. Something minor, and often both a blessing and a curse. Zinzi can find people's lost things.

'Zoo City' is essentially a cyberpunk detective novel. Zinzi is hired to find a missing girl, an assignment that pays well and seems straightforward enough. Of course, things are not what they seem.

Initially, I found the novel a little bewildering. Scene changes happened quickly, sometimes abruptly. A host of characters are introduced, as is a lot of information about Buekes alternate reality. It is refreshing to read a sci-fi novel set away from the Northern/Western hemisphere, but when reading from middle England, downtown Jo'burg can seem like another world, even without adding in 'Mashavi, 'aposymbiots' and 'Muti' mysticism. Read more ›

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Zoo City. 10 May 2013

By Kindle Customer

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The subject material is interesting and the relationship between animals and humans is cleverly depicted, but it can be a little convoluted at times in terms of the plot. I don't know if Beuke's did this intentionally but I am a little ambivalent when it comes to cognitive dissonance: Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. While no reader likes everything to be spelt out for them, I think a little more brevity would have done this novel a service. In spite of these criticisms I found it to be an interesting read; it was at least thought provoking if nothing else.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting Discovery 9 April 2013

By sparklestar

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Lauren Beukes is a brilliant find. I absolutely loved Zoo City - the writing is careful and delicious, the story draws you in effortlessly and unfolds in an intelligent, inspiring way. You won't be able to put it down. Read this book, you won't regret it!

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best thing for ages and ages 31 Mar 2013

By Ms. Giselle K. Leeb

Format:Paperback

I stumbled on this while wiling away time at St Pancras, waiting for a train. The review quote from William Gibson caught my eye. I will leave the plot to other reviews. This book is stunning. It's got everything: brilliant writing that flows so well and has such vivid detail that the world it describes is effortlessly real; beautiful imaginative word play, a wonderful, nuanced main character; interesting ideas; and an exciting plot. It's 'urban fantasy' but it crosses genre in many ways. It's the sort of book you'd be sorry not to have read because you'd be missing out on something original and fantastic. You can probably tell that it blew me away!

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant 9 Mar 2013

By DW23

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

From the perspective of a South African thats been out the country many years, it has brought back so many references. A brilliantly original book, that makes me feel the way I felt reading early Tom Robbins, but with a frame of reference to home! Totally recommend, kept me excited to read more; but slang may be foreign to anyone with no SA connection.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as The Shining Girls

I read this after enjoying The Shining Girls so much, but in comparison this was disappointing. It was reasonably easy to read and quite a good story with the kind of quirks I go... Read more

Published 4 months ago by JonBoy

5.0 out of 5 stars Zoo City

nice mix of magic realism and cutting edge politics - very well written - also check out the Shining Girls by same author

Published 8 months ago by Gerard Blair

3.0 out of 5 stars A taste of Dark Materials in South Africa

Cracking read. Though with Over 10% of the book still to read the story's finished..! WARNING. Longest acknowledgement section ever, which left a disappointed taste in the back of... Read more

Published 12 months ago by Pete r breakwell

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent cyberpunk world but weak plot

There were some really great parts to this book that I loved, but the whole thing didn't really come together. Read more

Published 14 months ago by Sara Price

4.0 out of 5 stars Glad I bought it on Kindle

I really did enjoy this book, as it was interesting to see an entirely different culture through the eyes of someone living it. Read more

Published 17 months ago by EGil

4.0 out of 5 stars Original but rushed

The pro:- this is a highly original alternative present story set in South Africa. There is a new Apartheit. Read more

Published 20 months ago by Bob simms

4.0 out of 5 stars cyber grunge crime novel

I am so impressed with this novel. If you are a fan of William Gibson or Charles de Lint or China Mieville, even Philip Pullman, you will love this one too. Read more

Published 20 months ago by Gypsy Girl

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book - a little unbelievable at the end...

This is Lauren Beukes' second novel and set in a similar dystopian future South Africa as her first (Moxyland). Read more

Published 21 months ago by Emmster

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