Quiet City: An Illustrated Novel
About this ebook
“Are you lonely? Do you want to make art that says something real, from your heart—but you’re afraid? Read this beautiful book and take heed: you’re not alone, you are loved, be open to the universe, tell your story in the way that only you can. Quiet City reminds us that we live in an imperfect, impossibly beautiful world.” —Jean Chen Ho, author of Fiona and Jane
QUIET CITY IS A POETIC, VISUALLY STUNNING NOVEL that follows a determined film student confronting questions of identity, disillusionment with cinema, and what feels like the end of the world.
The unnamed protagonist—a sophomore in film school in New York City—struggles with a lack of confidence while navigating the challenges of living in the city. Back home, her father faces early onset dementia, while her relationship with her sister is complicated at best. After the sudden loss of a close friend, she begins an internship with a former film producer named Mr. Mesmer, who is contending with the loss of his sight and hearing. Her job: to describe cinema’s most beloved films to him before it’s too late. Soon the film student finds herself reimagining some of cinema’s greatest movies, all the while experiencing moments of unexpected discovery.
Novelist Joe Meno and groundbreaking visual artist Cody Hudson brilliantly capture the difficulty of finding your way through an endless modern labyrinth of uncertainty, loss, and fear in this one-of-a-kind narrative experience. Quiet City is an emotionally resonant novel that asks: Where do we find meaning in a world of seemingly endless noise, and how might imagination contain the answer to all our most difficult questions?
About the author
JOE MENO is a fiction writer and journalist who lives in Chicago. He is the winner of the Nelson Algren Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Great Lakes Book Award, and was a finalist for the Story Prize. He is the best-selling author of nine novels and two short story collections, including Marvel and a Wonder, Hairstyles of the Damned, and The Boy Detective Fails. His nonfiction book on US asylum, Between Everything and Nothing, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and one of Kirkus Reviews’s Best Books of the Year. Meno is a professor in the School of Communication and Culture at Columbia College Chicago.
CODY HUDSON is a Chicago-based artist and designer. His multidisciplinary practice encompasses painting, sculpture, public art, and graphic design. Hudson’s work is celebrated for its use of bold shapes, subtle imperfection, and vibrant colors, creating visual narratives that explore themes of nature, human experience, and the interplay between the two. His work has been shown widely across the United States and abroad, including solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Elmhurst Art Museum, Andrew Rafacz gallery, and Mini Galerie; he has also been featured in group exhibitions at the Design Museum of Chicago, Hyde Park Art Center, and HELLERAU—European Centre for the Arts. Under the name Struggle Inc., he also maintains an active commercial design practice.
