If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

About this book

Italo Calvinos masterpiece combines a love story and a detective story into an exhilarating allegory of reading in which the reader of the book becomes the books central character. Based on a witty analogy between the readers desire to finish the story and the lovers desire to consummate his or her passion If On A Winters Night A Traveller is the tale of two bemused readers whose attempts to reach the end of the same book If On A Winters Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino of course are constantly and comically frustrated. In between chasing missing chapters of the book the hapless readers tangle with an international conspiracy a rogue translator an elusive novelist a disintegrating publishing house and several oppressive governments. The result is a literary labyrinth of storylines that interrupt one another - an Arabian Nights of the postmodern age.