If on a winter's night a traveller by Italo Calvino is possibly one of my favourite novels of all time, because of how I've never been able to find anything else like it.
Written in the second person, the simplest way to describe it is as a book about books and reading. It's extremely witty, fast-paced and absolutely genius, fully aware of how absurd it gets at times. You the reader and You the character are distinct entities, something discussed numerous times throughout, although that doesn't stop the author from referring to either when its called for.
The main plot of the book is presented as a frame story where You (the character) are attempting to read a novel called "If on a winter's night a traveller" by Italo Calvino, but well, that doesn't exactly go as planned, with the second half of each chapter being the first section of another fictional novel, always different from the last.
The author, Italo Calvino, was an Italian author during the late 1940s through to the 1980s and was, at the time of his death, the most widely translated contemporary Italian author, and one of the most celebrated of all time.
