If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino. Harvest Books. Translated by William Weaver.
A book about books, or is it about their readers? The protagonist - that’d be me (or would that be you? The book is written mostly in the second person) - starts reading a book only to find that not too far into it, due to an apparent publishing error, the action is suddenly cut off and replaced with a totally different book. He gets a new copy, and it’s yet another book, and one which is soon to be cut off as well! …And so on.
Recommended, although slightly frustrating as the book-within-the-book keeps rebooting itself, and none of the sub-stories has a proper resolution. Or an improper one. The prose is fluid, which compensates for the frustration of starting almost anew so many times: starting anew may be annoying, but at least it’s easy to do.
Hat tip to JB for lending me this book; maybe some day I’ll have a chance to return it to him.
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