A hypothetical city is the sum of those things which can be said of it: giant and autumnal, a palimpsest of competing histories and traditions bounded by high black mountains and an excrement sea, the city itself a staging ground for a religious war between violent sectarians and bigoted fanatics, Recht's anatomizing of a city in distress is a masterwork of satire and subversion. Written during the height of the Northern Irish Troubles, but mostly overlooked by critics in the intervening decades, Handbook to a Hypothetical City reflects the time of its conception while remaining one of the most imaginative works of speculative fiction ever written by an Irish author. Available again for the first time since it's original publication in 1986, Handbook to a Hypothetical City is a vital and compelling entry in the literary tradition of writers like Jonathan Swift and Samuel Butler.