Synopsis
Welcome to Esther Pike’s Fairharbour — a city stuck in constant summer, its walls crumbling in the heat, its oppressive sunlight a relentless presence.
Welcome to Jamie Pike’s Fairharbour — a city stuck in perpetual winter, its windows and doorways bricked shut to keep out the freezing cold, its residents striving to survive in the arctic conditions.
Winter and Summer alike, both have fallen under the yoke of oppressive powers that have taken control after the cataclysm.
But both Fairharbours were once a single, united city. And in certain places, at certain times, one side can catch a glimpse of the other. As Jamie and Esther find a way to communicate across the divide, they set out to solve the mystery of what split their city in two, and what, if anything, might repair their fractured worlds.
Review
City Of All Seasons is even better than the forecasters could have predicted. It’s thoughtful, unique, genre-busting, and mesmerising — one of those books that creeps under your skin and stays with you. The partnership of Whiteley and Langmead is truly inspired, and I hope they’ll keep writing together for many more seasons to come.
This was my most anticipated book of 2025, and I’m happy to report that it didn’t disappoint. As a fan of both authors, I expected that this genius pairing would result in something special, absorbing, inventive, and timeless. Tick, tick, tick, and tick. It lived up to its promise, and existing fans are going to be left feeling satisfied.
The story revolves around two cousins — Jamie and Esther — and the chapters go back and forth between them. An event in Fairharbour’s recent past has split the city in two, and a supposed weather-bomb has fixed the season so the climate never changes. Jamie lives in the city of Fairharbour during a perpetual winter. Esther lives in Fairharbour during an eternal summer. In Jamie’s Fairharbour, Esther has gone missing and nobody knows where. Similarly, in Esther’s Fairharbour, many of the city’s inhabitants are missing. Neither place has any clue that the other exists. Same space, different places.
The juxtaposition between the two versions of Fairharbour and how they’ve acclimatised to this meteorological phenomenon makes the central concept easy to wrap your head around, and adds to the separation and distance between Jamie and Esther. If I’ve made any of that sound confusing, then don’t worry — it isn’t. The way this concept has been translated onto the page makes it simple, and it’s a testament to the talent of both writers that they’ve made such an outlandish conceit so accessible.
Also, side note: the weather in the UK is famously miserable. And it makes total sense to a UK reader that Whiteley and Langmead would come up with the idea weaponising the weather!
In terms of characters, Jamie and Esther are a joy to know. I was pulled into their lives from the first page. I felt like I was in their cities with them. They share a history, and a family, and all that goes with it. As they begin to see points and places where Fairharbour may allow for some intersection between Summer and Winter, I felt their desire to unite acutely. When they begin passing items back and forth between each other, it reminded me of The Lake House — where communication is limited to this peculiar phenomenon that neither of them can explain, but the how of it all is irrelevant. All that matters is that it’s happening.
I remember the first time I watched Memento, and part of the fun was trying to guess at what would happen to stitch the scenes together, as I’d already been given a preview of what was to come. In the same way, there’s fun to be had in knowing what item has been left for Jamie or Esther to discover, and to see how they stumble across it, and whether they can work out its meaning. Having that advanced knowledge adds to the experience of the book, rather than takes away from it, and I loved that aspect of the structure.
When it comes to two cities sharing spaces, comparisons with The City And The City are inevitable, but you couldn’t get two more different books. Miéville crafted a dark and pacy neo-noir where every character accepted two places inhabiting the same space as normal. Here, nobody even realises the other city exists. It’s not action-packed and the mystery isn’t placed front and centre. This is a quiet, character-driven, charming book that has a slice-of-life vibe about what it’s like to live with an endless winter or summer.
That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of intrigue. You’ll ask questions as the plot progresses, such as why these cities are kept secret from each other, or what caused the division between them, and how does it factor into the family at the heart of the novel. There’s even a mysterious death to solve. These questions propel you to keep reading, but the story deliberately paints them into the background, veering away from plot to focus more on the characters and their individual lives — their search for resolutions to their own situations rather than some greater conspiracy — and this technique of ‘undercover intrigue’ adds a beguiling aspect to the flavour of the prose.
In terms of prose, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how sumptuous this is on a sentence level. What a beautiful book to read. I wanted to slow down and soak up the way it was so elegantly crafted. The two styles of Whiteley and Langmead blend seamlessly to create a gorgeous gem that gleams with every word. There’s plenty of their trademark allegory on show and it lands with a powerful kind of subtlety, giving impressive layers to the world and characters.
One final observation on world-building — I dare you to read this book and not enjoy picturing the two versions of Fairharbour! There’s a sub-plot that involves a filmmaker, and it’s apt in a lot of ways, one of them being that Summer and Winter are described with such clarity that the world becomes cinematic, and the images you’re left with are impactful and enduring.
Ultimately, City Of All Seasons is a story about family, about connection and disconnection, about longing and finding, and about the secrets that shape our world. It’s a weird, meditative look at the places around us and within us, and the power that belongs to the bridge of reconciliation. Give yourself time to indulge in this vivid, speculative literary treat, and you’ll feel all the more appreciative for the future, and the coming of spring.
Release date: April 29th, 2025
Published by Titan Books
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