If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (Everyman's Library (Cloth))

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

Introduction by Peter Washington; Translation by William Weaver

Italo Calvino?s masterpiece combines a love story and a detective story into an exhilarating allegory of reading, in which the reader of the book becomes the book?s central character.

Based on a witty analogy between the reader?s desire to finish the story and the lover?s desire to consummate his or her passion, IF ON A WINTER?S NIGHT A TRAVELER is the tale of two bemused readers whose attempts to reach the end of the same book?IF ON A WINTER?S NIGHT A TRAVELER, 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.