The City

by Dean R. Koontz

There are millions of stories in the city -- some magical, some tragic, others terror-filled or triumphant. Jonah Kirk's story is all of those things as he draws readers into his life in the city as a young boy, introducing his indomitable grandfather, also a "piano man;" his single mother, a struggling singer; and the heroes, villains, and everyday saints and sinners who make up the fabric of the metropolis in which they live -- and who will change the course of Jonah's life forever. Welcome to The City, a place of evergreen dreams where enchantment and malice entwine, where courage and honor are found in the most unexpected corners and the way forward lies buried deep inside the heart.

Musical prodigy Jonah Kirk, son of an exceptional singer and grandson of a formidable "piano man," explores his own gifts when he crosses a group of extremely dangerous people. The plot contains profanity, sexual references, and graphic violence.

• ISBN10: 034554594X
• ISBN13: 9780345545947
• Publish Date: 1 July 2014 (first published 24 June 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Bantam
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 290
• Language: English

Reviews

[Beth C.]

The world is both more simple, and more complicated, than we often imagine. Dean Koontz shows this eloquently in his new novel "The City". Jonah Kirk is a boy, one whose only goal is to be a piano man. He has a gift, but as with many gifts, there are other, darker things that come along with it. One of those is his father - the man who abandoned he and his mother and embraced the darkness that can always be found. This is the story of how Jonah found that both simple and complicated can be, in the end, magical.

I have been reading Dean Koontz for many years, and this novel is very different from what is typically expected in his books. Yes, there is a touch of the mystical, but the scary is all-too-human and the mystical can be attributed to that as well. I wasn't sure, as I got into the story, whether or not I would like it. As I finished the story, it was with a sense of quiet grace, having just read a story that is timeless in the telling and that will stay with me even after the telling of it.