China Miéville and his five earrings

Fiction author China Miéville reads from his book Embassytown at a reading at a bookstore named The World's Biggest Bookstore in Toronto, Canada. The date was May 26, 2011. The science fiction novel was about a trading town at the "very edge of the known universe." China Miéville was born in 1972, so he turned 39 the year this photo was taken.