page_title: Zoo City
section_title: Development history
hierarchical_section_title: Zoo City / Development history
caption_attribution_description: English: South African writer Lauren Beukes and Tytti Viinikainen, who translated the novel Zoo City to Finnish.
context_page_description: Zoo City is a 2010 science fiction novel by South African author Lauren Beukes. It won the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award and the 2010 Kitschies Red Tentacle for best novel. The cover of the British edition of the book was awarded the 2010 BSFA Award for best artwork, and the book itself was shortlisted in the best novel category of the award.
context_section_description: Beukes began writing Zoo City after signing a two-book deal with the British publisher Angry Robot for her first novel, Moxyland, and a subsequent book. While she spent four years working on Moxyland, Zoo City took just over a year to complete. To research Zoo City, Beukes – who was born in Johannesburg but currently lives in Cape Town – hired a fixer to help her meet contacts in Hillbrow, the inner city suburb of Johannesburg in which much of the book is set, and spent days walking around the area.
caption: Lauren Beukes and the Finnish translator of Zoo City, Tytti Viinikainen, in Turku in 2018.
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