Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    This Census-Taker
    Unavailable
    This Census-Taker
    Unavailable
    This Census-Taker
    Audiobook4 hours

    This Census-Taker

    Written by China Miéville

    Narrated by Matthew Frow

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    For readers of George Saunders, Kelly Link, David Mitchell, and Karen Russell, This Census-Taker is a stunning, uncanny, and profoundly moving novella from multiple-award-winning and bestselling author China Miéville.

    NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR

    In a remote house on a hilltop, a lonely boy witnesses a profoundly traumatic event. He tries-and fails-to flee. Left alone with his increasingly deranged parent, he dreams of safety, of joining the other children in the town below, of escape.

    When at last a stranger knocks at his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation might be over.

    But by what authority does this man keep the meticulous records he carries? What is the purpose behind his questions? Is he friend? Enemy? Or something else altogether?

    Filled with beauty, terror, and strangeness, This Census-Taker is a poignant and riveting exploration of memory and identity.

    Praise for This Census-Taker

    "China Miéville is a magician . . . who can both blow your mind with ideas as big as the universe and break your heart with language so precise and polished, it's like he's writing with diamonds."-NPR

    "The book haunts the reader; what actually happened seems always just out of reach, glimpsed in shadow as it rounds a corner ahead of our vision."-Los Angeles Review of Books

    "[Mieville's] been compared to Karen Russell and George Saunders, and rightfully so."-The Huffington Post

    "Marvellous."-The Guardian

    "Lingers in the mind like an unsettling dream."-Financial Times

    "A thought-provoking fairy tale for adults . . . [This Census-Taker] resembles the narrative style, quirkiness, and plotting found in the works of Karen Russell, Aimee Bender, or Steven Millhauser."-Booklist

    "Brief and dreamlike . . . a deceptively simple story whose plot could be taken as a symbolic representation of an aspect of humanity as big as an entire society and as small as a single soul."-Kirkus Reviews
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 12, 2016
    ISBN9780399567254
    Unavailable
    This Census-Taker
    Author

    China Miéville

    China Miéville lives and works in London. He is three-time winner of the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award and has also won the British Fantasy Award twice. The City & The City, an existential thriller, was published to dazzling critical acclaim and drew comparison with the works of Kafka and Orwell and Philip K. Dick. His novel Embassytown was a first and widely praised foray into science fiction.

    Related to This Census-Taker

    Related audiobooks

    Fantasy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      I and Thou: A Bigfoot Encounter

      Dec 16, 2019

      I and Thou: A Bigfoot Encounter
      17 min read

    • Article

      The Ghosts of George Saunders

      Apr 1, 2017

      The acclaimed author goes deep on Civil War days and the humanity of Donald Trump supporters.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Cal Thomas: The power of Christmas

      Dec 24, 2020

      Of all the great and small events of 1991, the death of CBS News' "60 Minutes" co-host Harry Reasoner probably rates near the bottom in the amount of attention afforded it by the public. Yet when a keen observer and a person of talent and grace leave

      2 min read

    • Article

      Saving Grace

      Apr 25, 2021

      Ryland Grace is definitely not based on Andy Weir. In Project Hail Mary, Grace – a man who wakes up in a ship in deep space not knowing where he is or even who he is – faces the task of figuring out how to save an Earth that’s heading for oblivion as

      5 min read

    • Article

      It Was a Calm, Wintery Night

      Aug 8, 2022

      I slowly stepped up the last creaky stair and flipped the light switch off. There was just enough twilight left in the room as I approached the window, stepping around the boxes strewn about the centuries-old hardwood floor. I hovered close enough to

      2 min read

    • Article

      A Year in (Canadian) Reading: Claire Cameron

      Dec 9, 2017

      I was on book tour for much of the year. And when I tour, I read. I’m not sure how many books I got through exactly, but I read about quantum gravity, a few different translations of Beowulf, microbiology, and cave art. I read Elon Musk’s biogr

      4 min read

    • Article

      Writing in the Edgelands: A Conversation Between Kerri Arsenault and Elizabeth Rush

      Sep 8, 2020

      I met Elizabeth Rush on Twitter, through friends I also met on Twitter, who all resided, generally, in Providence, Rhode Island, and who didn’t necessarily know each other in real life. In the summer of 2018, we all broke bread and drank beer in a Pr

      16 min read

    • Article

      On The Road To Flourish

      Jun 5, 2023

      On The Road To Flourish
      18 min read

    • Article

      Thank Goodness For ‘Small Mercies’

      Dec 12, 2020

      IT WAS quite by accident that Bridget Krone’s novel for 9- to-12-year-olds, set in Pietermaritzburg, was published after a friend submitted her manuscript to an overseas publisher after it had been rejected locally. Now, Krone is bowled over that Kir

      2 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Knausgaard, Davies, North, and More

      Jan 5, 2021

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Karl Ove Knausgaard, Nnedi Okorafor, and Mateo Askaripour—that are publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Knausgaard, Davies, North, and More appeared first on The Mi

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Il’ja Rakos

      Dec 8, 2018

      These things come in threes and today they came nearly all at once. The first, when the President of Ukraine–famous for his chocolate–announced that he was putting the half of the country that borders Russia under martial law. The second with the two

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Darkness Within

      Dec 13, 2017

      LAST summer I wrote a review of Who Is Rich? (Random House, 2017) by Matthew Klam. The novel is narrated by a man named Rich Fischer, a self-loathing husband and father who conducts an anguished and antic affair with an equally unhappy infidel. Short

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Darkness Within

      Dec 5, 2017

      LAST summer I wrote a review of Who Is Rich? (Random House, 2017) by Matthew Klam. The novel is narrated by a man named Rich Fischer, a self-loathing husband and father who conducts an anguished and antic affair with an equally unhappy infidel. Short

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Next Chapter

      Jun 24, 2023

      The Next Chapter
      4 min read

    Reviews for This Census-Taker

    4/5

    8 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Mieville has quickly become one of my favorite writers. This story has a very good narrator as well. Enjoy!