Cities of the Red Knight
- ISBN
- 0330266772
- Publisher
- Pan Books
- Published
- 1982
- Language
- English
- Genre
- Fiction
- Location
- O15
About the book
"Cities of the Red Night" is a seminal postmodern science fiction novel by William S. Burroughs. Blending detective noir, pirate lore, time travel, and dystopian body horror, the narrative weaves together three seemingly disparate plotlines: a 18th-century pirate commune operating under a radically libertarian constitution, a 1920s private investigator searching for a missing boy in the American Southwest, and a modern-day outbreak of a sexually transmitted virus that causes spontaneous combustion. Beneath its fragmented, nonlinear structure, Burroughs explores central themes of political revolution, bodily control, viral epidemics, and the destructive nature of authoritarian power.