The City & The City vs. Murder on the Orient Express

A Bridge of Ideas

You've connected two seemingly disparate genres by recognizing a shared architectural principle: the construction of reality itself. While 'The City & The City' deconstructs political and social borders through a surrealist lens, 'Murder on the Orient Express'—despite its more grounded detective premise—similarly relies on the reader's perception to construct the truth of an event from fragmented perceptions and invented narratives. Both books, in their unique ways, emphasize how our understanding of 'what is' is ultimately a product of constructed frameworks and agreed-upon fictions, echoing a profound philosophical inquiry into the nature of reality and knowledge.