If on a winter's night a traveler

Italo Calvino · 1923–1985 · Italy

Originally Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore (Italian) · translated by William Weaver

Why it matters

You, the Reader, keep starting novels that break off: ten openings, one love story about reading itself. Postmodern play at its most generous; the rare metafiction that ends in a wedding.

At a glance

Second-person frame narrative interleaved with ten distinct pastiche novel openings.