<P> The City & the City is a novel by British author China Miéville, combining weird fiction with the police procedural . It was written as a gift for Miéville's terminally ill mother, who was a fan of the latter genre . The novel was published by Macmillan on 15 May 2009 . In the US it was published by Del Rey Books on 26 May 2009 . </P> <P> The novel won the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, Arthur C. Clarke Award, World Fantasy Award, BSFA Award and the Kitschies Red Tentacle; tied for the 2010 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and was nominated for a Nebula Award and John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel . </P> <P> A four - part television adaptation by the BBC was broadcast in 2018 . </P> <P> Inspector Tyador Borlú, of the Extreme Crime Squad in the fictional European city - state of Besźel, investigates the murder of Mahalia Geary, a foreign student found dead with her face disfigured, in a Besźel street . He soon learns that Geary had been involved in the political and cultural turmoil involving Besźel and its "twin city" of Ul Qoma . His investigations start in his home city of Besźel, lead him to Ul Qoma to assist the Ul Qoman police in their work, and eventually result in an examination of the legend of Orciny, a rumoured third city existing in the spaces between Besźel and Ul Qoma . </P>

The city and the city bbc number of episodes