I could recommend Italo Calvino's masterpiece just on the merits of the first chapter -- his journey through the book-pitching process in an unnamed bookstore will have hardcore book nerds (like myself) nodding their heads in appreciation! Where he goes from there, however, is a journey into uncharted territory. You, as the reader, join into the novel's progress and then find that your book is misprinted and embark on a quest to find the rest of the book you started (and had really wanted to read!). With chapters alternating between reading books that might be your original book's continuation and trying to figure out what is going on, you have a lot going on -- but the experience is one of the most rewarding reads I've ever had.
A "dreamlike and compelling” tour de force (Chicago Tribune)—an astonishingly imaginative detective story, an account of a disintegrating marriage, and an excavation of the buried secrets from Japan’s forgotten campaign in Manchuria during World War II.
Now with a new introduction by the author.