N.K. Jemisin Confronts the City We’re Becoming

“New York City itself has a phantom presence in the lives of every citizen and visitor,” N.K. Jemisin writes in her new novel, “The City We Became.” As she describes the transformation of a city into its own living being, she says, “Enough human beings occupy one space, tell enough stories about it, develop a unique enough culture, and all these layers of reality start to compact and metamorphose.”

“The City We Became” is weighty, vibrant reading, as Jemisin, the first-ever person to win three consecutive Hugo Awards for her best-selling “Broken Earth” trilogy, turns her attention to a city she’s called home throughout her life (though, as she describes it herself, she’s an “on-again, off-again New Yorker”). It’s a city under siege from an alien force, defending itself as it attempts to give birth to a human avatar capable of resisting the invasion.