READ: The Way Through Doors by Jesse Ball

By the author of Samedi the Deafness.

Newly promoted to the post of Municipal Inspector for the Seventh Ministry, pamphleteer Selah Morse witnesses a hit-and-run accident. Rushing the young victim to the hospital, he discovers that she has neither identification nor memory. Morse pretends to be her boyfriend and takes her home to try and help her discover her true self. For her medical safety he’s cautioned to keep her awake. He does this by telling her stories.

The stories blend one into the other and back again, with references to the Arabian Nights, Dante’s Inferno, the Grimm Brothers, and time travel tales. Characters from one story take on roles in others and locations and events alter, vanish or disappear with a single word. The language, poetic and imaginative, is hypnotic.