Have you ever been to Ambergris? Described, and believe me I quote, as “Funny, bawdy, profane, tragic, and sometimes heartbreaking” Jeff Vandermeer’s City of Saints and Madmen is a mosaic novel, a shattered mirror of story, myth and mystery the kind of which you rarely stumble across. In all honesty it’s the kind of book that shouldn’t work. It should be terrible. It’s not. It’s actually strange and rich and wonderful. It’s just been published by Bantam in a cool new edition, which you should definitely check out. And, if that dip into the heady whirlpool of Amergris enchants and beguiles, get ready for Shriek: An Afterword which follows in August.