'Basically what we have here is a dreamer. Somebody out of touch with reality. When she jumped, she probably thought she'd fly'

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The Twenty-Seventh City

Jonathan Franzen

By the author of the bestseller ‘The Corrections’ and the sensational ‘Freedom’, ‘The Twenty-Seventh City’ is a novel of intrigue, humour and fear. St. Louis, Missouri, is a quietly dying river city until it hires a new police chief: a charismatic young woman from Bombay, India, named S. Jammu. No sooner has Jammu been installed, though, than the city’s leading citizens become embroiled in an all-pervasive political conspiracy. A classic of contemporary fiction, ‘The Twenty-Seventh City’ shows us an ordinary metropolis turned inside out, and the American Dream unravelling into terror and dark comedy.

Reviews of The Twenty-Seventh City

  • ‘A huge and masterly drama…gripping and surreal and overwhelmingly convincing.’ Laura Shapiro, Newsweek

    ‘A novel so imaginatively and expansively of our times that is seems ahead of them.’ Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times

    ‘Franzen has managed to put together a suspense story with the elements of a complex, multi-layered psychological novel…A riveting piece of fiction that lingers in the mind long after more conventional pot-boilers have bubbled away.’ Peter Andrews, The New York Times Book Review

    ‘Unsettling and visionary…“The Twenty-Seventh City” is not a novel that can be quickly dismissed or easily forgotten: it has elements of both “Great” and “American”…A book of memorable characters, surprising situations, and provocative ideas.’ Washington Post

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