The City & the City: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

Borlú is dropped off north of Lestov, where he boards a tram. He calls Naustin and requests that the mattress be tested for “trace.” As the tram winds its way through old buildings, “at least half” of what it passes is Besźel. Currently, Besźel is experiencing a trickle of foreign investment. Borlú gets off downtown, where the streets are busy with citizens and tourists. He calls Corwi and asks if there’s any chance the case involves breach, but Corwi replies that it’s unlikely, because the “area’s mostly pretty total.” Borlú points out that some of GunterStrász is crosshatched, but Corwi replies that she still thinks the murderer(s) would never have taken such a risk.

Borlú reviews his other cases: one an instance of domestic violence, another a racist hate crime. Yaszek calls with the news that the interrogation is complete, and the kids’ stories add up. The girl who saw the van described it as having sped away. Later, she and the others went to try to find the van to see if it had been dumped and could be looted for any “old stereos, shoes, books, all kinds of shit.” Instead, they found the body of the dead woman. After Borlú’s conversation with Yaszek, Commissar Gadlem calls him in to get an update on the case. Gadlem encourages him to “follow [his] nose.”

At 10pm, 40 hours after the corpse was discovered, Corwi drives herself and Borlú down GunterStrász. The area is neither busy nor totally deserted. Although they are in an unmarked car rather than a “bruise” (Besź police car), Corwi still wears her uniform because she doesn’t want any potential sources to think she is “entrap[ping]” them. Most of the people around are in Besźel, recognizable from their “fashionless fashion,” and Borlú and Corwi quickly “unsee” those who aren’t. Corwi says that her conversations with local people earlier didn’t yield very much. She didn’t even have a photograph of the victim, and everyone she spoke to knew “nothing” about the crime.

Now Borlú has a photo, and he holds it out while approaching a group of sex workers so they know he is not trying to arrest them. The women say they do not recognize the victim, and Borlú believes them. They keep talking to more people, some of whom know Corwi from when she used to work in the area. However, they cannot find any information about the victim, and by two a.m. they agree to give up. Borlú says he’ll have posters put around the neighborhood; when Corwi expresses uncertainty that Commissar Gadlem will approve this plan, Borlú says he will put the posters up himself.

Borlú goes to Shukman’s lab. Shukman’s assistant Hamzinic is what racists term an “ébru,” a word originally meaning Jew that is now usually mostly directed at Muslims and other new immigrants, and which is sometimes reclaimed by those it is meant to insult. Borlú reflects on an old joke about the Besź Orthodox Church being the “middle child” between Judaism and Islam. He explains that, for much of Besźel’s history, there existed an establishment known as the DöplirCaffé, which had both a halal and kosher kitchen but a mixed eating area. Borlú notes that “Whether the DöplirCaffé was one establishment or two depended on who was asking.”

“Fulana” (the name for an identified female victim) lies between Borlú and Shukman, covered up. Shukman says that she was 24 or 25, in good health, and that she died from puncture wounds to the heart. She has many strange wounds and was hit on the side of the head with a blunt object before being killed. There are no recent signs of sexual intercourse or of self-defense, suggesting that the murderer approached her from behind. Her body also looks as if it has been dragged along the ground.