The Rouse cover art

The Rouse

The long-awaited masterpiece from the author of The City & The City

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The Rouse

By: China Miéville
Narrated by: China Miéville, Colin Mace, Emma Spurgin Hussey
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'Completely without parallel' – Michael Moorcock, author of The Dancers at the End of Time
'A magisterial wonder' –
Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World
'An extraordinary tour de force' – Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Time
'Every page feels alive' – Xiaolu Guo, author of Call Me Ishmaelle


From the bestselling, award-winning master of uncanny fiction comes a defining work, twenty years in the making – a deeply moving, decade- and continent-spanning epic of grief, global tumult, and grim conspiracy.

Maur’s life has been shaped by an unbearable loss. But in the aftermath of what is an apparently ordinary tragedy, deeper, stranger questions arise . . . Their answers may lie within the dark heart and darker history of an old soldier who shares Maur’s obsessions – and is violently pursued by the same unknown, unquiet forces.

So begins The Rouse, a masterpiece unlike any other: at once a sprawling saga of the bloody twentieth century, and the intimate story of two lives, their loves, regrets and secrets – and a terrifying journey into infinite mystery.

Praise for China Miéville, author of The City & The City

‘You can’t talk about Miéville without using the word “brilliant”’ – Ursula K. Le Guin

‘One of the most interesting and freakishly gifted writers of his generation’ – The Daily Telegraph

‘As intelligent as he is original’ – The Guardian

‘The names of Kafka and Orwell tend to be invoked too easily for anything a bit out of the ordinary, but in this case they are worthy comparisons’ – The Times

20th Century Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction War & Military
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Critic reviews

I cannot say how much I love this book both for its humanity and its originality. The Rouse is a classic of modern weird literature . . . and goes beyond genre to put Miéville in the forefront of modern British novelists (Michael Moorcock, author of The Dancers at the End of Time)
The Rouse is a stirring, moving family saga and a dizzying exegesis of the violent and virulent second half of the twentieth century, as well a lament for the brutalist age it has spawned. Complex, consuming, thrilling, terrifying, a feast of language and ideas . . . I could go on and on. A magisterial wonder (Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World)
A richly immersive, sweeping vision of twentieth-century London, capturing the city in all its colours and sounds . . . Every page feels alive (Xiaolu Guo, author of Call Me Ishmaelle)
An extraordinary tour de force, poetic, complex and poignant. A true masterpiece of the weird (Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Time)
A monster of a book in every sense: a showing of the ghosts that haunt our real history, and of the power of the fantastic to explore with tender horror the twilight borderland where dogs turn into wolves, and back again (Francis Spufford, author of Golden Hill)
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