If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller 

Italo Calvino

I’ve been wanting to read this book ever since the first time I heard about it. It’s  been called genius, smart, a metaphor on life, on the creative process, a mystery novel, a romance, a tragedy - and I agree with all of it. It is hard to say what it is about. It’s probably easier to say what it is not. 

Boring or predictable it is not. 

It starts with this:  a Reader starts reading a novel which has pages missing. He goes back to the bookshop to get a new copy, where he meets the Other Reader. He gets a new copy but it is a completely different story ...

It is a book filled with surprises and twists. And amongst all of it, it is really a story of the Reader and the Other Reader, the solitary aspect of reading and the problems of writing a good story. 

It won’t be everybody’s cup of tea but I love it. If you’ve read and liked David Mitchell, or Arabian Nights, there is a good chance you’ll love this one, too. 

 
 
 
 
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