The City We Became

The City We Became is a fantasy novel published in 2020 by the American author N. K. Jemisin. It is the first book in her forthcoming Great Cities trilogy. Jemisin’s work falls into a grey area; it is sometimes labeled urban fantasy, science fiction, or speculative fiction. She is the first author in history to win three consecutive Hugo Awards, one for each novel in her Broken Earth trilogy (The Fifth Season [2015], The Obelisk Gate [2016], and The Stone Sky [2017]). Her work has also won the Locust Award, the Nebula Award, and the Goodreads Reader’s Choice Award.

Plot Summary

The City We Became opens with a nameless character—in this case, a homeless, young Black man who inhabits the rooftops of New York City. He hears bizarre sounds from under the streets, interpreting those sounds through his paintings of strange, gaping orifices. He is befriended by Paulo, a stranger who understands these sounds and takes the young man under his wing. The man is the embodiment, or avatar, of New York City which is being born at this moment, and Paulo, the avatar of Sao Paulo, Brazil, is its midwife. One day, the young man is chased through the streets by shape-shifting creatures from another universe that seek to establish a foothold in the city.