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The Rouse
- Author
- China Miéville
- Publisher
- Pan Macmillan
- Publish Date
- 17 September 2026
- Run Time
- 40 hours 41 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
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What to expect
Read by Colin Mace and Emma Spurgin Hussey, featuring the voice of the author, China Miéville.
From the bestselling, award-winning master of uncanny fiction comes a defining work, twenty years in the making – a deeply moving, decade- and continent-spanning epic of grief, global tumult, and grim conspiracy.
'Miéville’s command of his prose is phenomenal . . . This is a world that you can truly swim in, and few authors can achieve that' - The Times
‘Affecting, intelligent and, in more than one place, very, very frightening. This is a novel destined for a rich afterlife' - The Guardian
'An extraordinary tour de force' - Adrian Tchaikovsky
'A monster of a book in every sense' - Francis Spufford
'I felt it in my bones, the undeniable power of a jagged masterpiece' - The New York Times
Maur’s life has been shaped by an unbearable loss. But in the aftermath of what is an apparently ordinary tragedy, deeper, stranger questions arise . . . Their answers may lie within the dark heart and darker history of an old soldier who shares Maur’s obsessions – and is violently pursued by the same unknown, unquiet forces.
So begins The Rouse, a masterpiece unlike any other: at once a sprawling saga of the bloody twentieth century, and the intimate story of two lives, their loves, regrets and secrets – and a terrifying journey into infinite mystery.
Praise for China Miéville, author of The City & The City
‘You can’t talk about Miéville without using the word “brilliant”’ – Ursula K. Le Guin
‘One of the most interesting and freakishly gifted writers of his generation’ – The Daily Telegraph
‘As intelligent as he is original’ – The Guardian
‘The names of Kafka and Orwell tend to be invoked too easily for anything a bit out of the ordinary, but in this case they are worthy comparisons’ – The Times
Critics Review
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Miéville’s command of his prose is phenomenal. There is a real sense of life throughout as he seamlessly slips between styles . . . This is a world that you can truly swim in, and few authors can achieve that'
The Times
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What Miéville has crafted in The Rouse is an intimate epic, a controlled sprawl of history and emotional resonance. I felt it in my bones, the undeniable power of a jagged masterpiece
The New York Times
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The Rouse is affecting, intelligent and, in more than one place, very, very frightening. “Life,” as Miéville writes, “is just a prologue to a ghost story.” This is a novel destined for a rich afterlife
The Guardian
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[An] incredibly ambitious combination of history and the supernatural . . . Miéville renders the winding, complex plot that ties these two characters together in characteristically robust prose and provides a satisfying ending for readers who persevere. Fans will not be disappointed
Publishers Weekly
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Miéville is back . . . [The Rouse] is a book of the dead and the superpositioned living. A lament configuration that grieves and is aghast. It is monumental and exhaustive yet concise . . . you never want it to end: you want it never to end
Boston Review
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China Miéville is one of our great contemporary writers, master of the weird and author of masterpieces
New Scientist
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Miéville has been allowed full, free rein in this new work of eldritch dead and haunting dread
Booklist
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A smartly imagined, genre-bending story that readers may find all too real
Kirkus Reviews
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I cannot say how much I love this book both for its humanity and its originality. The Rouse is a classic of modern weird literature . . . and goes beyond genre to put Miéville in the forefront of modern British novelists
Michael Moorcock, author of The Dancers at the End of Time
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The Rouse is a stirring, moving family saga and a dizzying exegesis of the violent and virulent second half of the twentieth century, as well a lament for the brutalist age it has spawned. Complex, consuming, thrilling, terrifying, a feast of language and ideas . . . I could go on and on. A magisterial wonder
Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World
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A richly immersive, sweeping vision of twentieth-century London, capturing the city in all its colours and sounds . . . Every page feels alive
Xiaolu Guo, author of Call Me Ishmaelle
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A monster of a book in every sense: a showing of the ghosts that haunt our real history, and of the power of the fantastic to explore with tender horror the twilight borderland where dogs turn into wolves, and back again
Francis Spufford, author of Golden Hill
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An extraordinary tour de force, poetic, complex and poignant. A true masterpiece of the weird
Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Time
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The Rouse is Miéville's most completely realised imagining, an alchemical amalgamation of historical and meta-natural horror that like its characters strives to fathom that which surpasses all understanding
Tariq Goddard, author of Homage to a Firing Squad
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Miéville's genre-busting secret history is epically ambitious, crammed with ideas and eyekicks, yet also profoundly humane. A true masterwork
Paul McAuley, author of Fairyland
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At once the most poetic horror and the most fearsome historical novel in contemporary letters. There is simply no equivalent to Miéville’s achievement
Jordy Rosenberg, author of Confessions of the Fox
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'A monster of a book in every sense'
Francis Spufford, author of Golden Hill
User Reviews
No reviews yet.
Details
- Author
- China Miéville
- Narrator
- China Miéville, Colin Mace, Emma Spurgin Hussey
- Duration
- 40 hours 41 minutes
- Release Date
- 17 September 2026
- ISBN
- 9781509847433
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Pan Macmillan
- Genre
- Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, War, combat and military adventure fiction
Synopsis
Read by Colin Mace and Emma Spurgin Hussey, featuring the voice of the author, China Miéville.From the bestselling, award-winning master of uncanny fiction comes a defining work, twenty years in the making – a deeply moving, decade- and continent-spanning epic of grief, global tumult, and grim conspiracy.'Miéville’s command of his prose is phenomenal . . . This is a world that you can truly swim in, and few authors can achieve that' - The Times‘Affecting, intelligent and, in more than one place, very, very frightening. This is a novel destined for a rich afterlife' - The Guardian'An extraordinary tour de force' - Adrian Tchaikovsky'A monster of a book in every sense' - Francis Spufford'I felt it in my bones, the undeniable power of a jagged masterpiece' - The New York TimesMaur’s life has been shaped by an unbearable loss. But in the aftermath of what is an apparently ordinary tragedy, deeper, stranger questions arise . . . Their answers may lie within the dark heart and darker history of an old soldier who shares Maur’s obsessions – and is violently pursued by the same unknown, unquiet forces.So begins The Rouse, a masterpiece unlike any other: at once a sprawling saga of the bloody twentieth century, and the intimate story of two lives, their loves, regrets and secrets – and a terrifying journey into infinite mystery.Praise for China Miéville, author of The City & The City‘You can’t talk about Miéville without using the word “brilliant”’ – Ursula K. Le Guin‘One of the most interesting and freakishly gifted writers of his generation’ – The Daily Telegraph‘As intelligent as he is original’ – The Guardian‘The names of Kafka and Orwell tend to be invoked too easily for anything a bit out of the ordinary, but in this case they are worthy comparisons’ – The Times
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