Don't let the other, convoluted and overly artsy reviews keep you away from this masterpiece of a book. I don't give out five-star ratings easily, but here it is justified. Reading "If on a winter's night a traveler" is a wild ride, as unconventional as its title.

Above all, YOU are the protagonist. The narrator addresses YOU for the majority of the novel, and it's YOU who has adventures trying to find out just HOW that darn book continues after you read the first few pages - and then it just stops.

And off you go, embarking on a journey across your city and to far-away places to find out how the plot will develop. On the way, you encounter a fellow reader, literature scholars and students, editors and authors looking for inspiration, and also, uh, censors from an authoritarian state? Bear with me.

Reading this book feels like reading ten books at the same time, but without the confusion you would expect. You, the reader, start reading ten very different books, written in very different styles, and you will find out why that is the case. Mostly.

Listen to me: I usually don't like novels that are about literature and about the love of reading. I think it's cheap and easy to appeal to readers and customers like that. Here, this topic is handled in another way: You are immersed in this world of literature without all the fuss I came to dislike. You're thrown right in the middle of it, and it is just wonderful.