Lente

Palimpsest is a novel by Catherynne M. Valente, published in March of 2009. It follows four separate characters as they discover and explore a mysterious city accessed only at night. In an interview with Terri Windling at Fantasy Book Critic, Valente describes the book: "Palimpsest is an urban fantasy about a city that lives on human skin, a viral city whose citizens consist of those who bear parts of the city on their flesh, and visit it in their dreams. The story follows four such people as they search for others like themselves and a way to enter the city permanently. " Annalee Newitz of io9 stated that the author has created a novel where, "... the clotted-cream style of the prose reflects the baroque landscapes she evokes in her imaginary city, and in the collapsing psychologies of her main characters. In many ways this is a book about transcendence, about finding a spiritual realm even in the most ordinary and debased activities. But it is also a novel quite simply about debasement."