The City & the City: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

Tyador Borlú arrives at a crime scene, a patch of concrete between two buildings dotted with dead trees and “weedy” grass. He is the most senior detective there. Examining the corpse, he notices that it is a young woman with her limbs bent into strange positions. She is wearing nothing except ripped tights and one shoe, and her face is disfigured such that only one open eye is visible. A constable named Lizybet Corwi explains that a wet mattress, which is now lying between two garbage bins, was on top of the corpse when they found her. Another detective named Bardo Naustin squats by the corpse, staring at a pile of soil surrounding her. 

The corpse was discovered by two “kids” who saw her being mauled by an animal and then called the police. They are now sitting nearby with two girls. They are “chewers” (drug users) who dumped their khat nearby, where it was discovered by the officers. Borlú introduces himself to them, explaining that he is from the Extreme Crime Squad. One of the boys introduces himself as Vilyem Barichi. Borlú asks if there was anyone else around when they found the corpse, and Vilyem says there were a couple of guys, plus a van that drove up onto the grass for a moment before driving away. Borlú explains that they will be given some breakfast while they wait for their parents to arrive.

Stepen Shukman, the “patho,” arrives with his assistant Hamd Hamzinic. Shukman examines the body, announcing that she’s been dead for around 12 hours and that she wasn’t killed in this spot. He turns the body over, and Borlú sees that there is a lot of makeup smeared across the woman’s badly beaten face. Shukman observes that the cause of death must be the gashes on her chest, although there is also a deep gash across her cheek. After taking photographs, Shukman announces that the corpse is ready to be moved. Borlú speaks to Naustin, who says that the corpse is probably a “hooker,” who was potentially killed by a client because she wouldn’t do what he wanted.

However, the gash across the corpse’s face suggests that the murderer was a “sadist,” and the dumping of her body indicates that they didn’t care about being caught. Borlú advises Naustin to talk to the local sex workers and bring in Ramira Yaszek, who is an “excellent questioner.” Corwi suggests that they should consider the possibility that the dead woman wasn’t a sex worker. She notes that the woman’s makeup is in natural, earthy colors, and that her hair is undyed and fairly clean. Borlú asks if Corwi is familiar with the area, and she says that she is, somewhat, although it is so far out that it is hardly even part of the city of Besźel. It is a deprived, largely desolate neighborhood.

Corwi says that she has only dealt with a couple of murders in the area; most of the crime here is drug- or gang-related. Borlú tells her to investigate the local area. A small group of journalists have assembled and are now trying to get Borlú’s attention. In recent years, the local press has become more aggressive, with a “trend to sensation”—however, the problem is that they tend to always follow the same formulaic script, borrowing clichés from the British and American press. Borlú tells the journalists that there will be a press conference that afternoon. He gazes at an elderly woman walking nearby at the end of GunterStrász, before realizing with a start that she is not on GunterStrász at all and looking away.