If on a Winter's Night a Traveler Audiobook By Italo Calvino, William Weaver - Translator cover art

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

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If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

By: Italo Calvino, William Weaver - Translator
Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
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Italo Calvino imagines a novel capable of endless mutations in this intricately crafted story about writing and readers. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler turns out to be not one novel but 10, each with a different plot, style, ambience, and author, and each interrupted at a moment of suspense. Together they form a labyrinth of literatures, known and unknown, alive and extinct, through which two readers, a male and a female, pursue both the story lines that intrigue them and one another.

©1979 Giulio Einaudi Editore, S.p.A., Torino; 1981 Harcourt, Inc. (translation) (P)2017 Recorded Books
Literary Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction
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My all time person favorite book in spoken word! Listening to it was a whole new experience to just reading it! Loved the narration!!

Personal favorite!

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In a parallel to life, I loved some of these stories and disliked others. I felt Ludmilla disappeared in the last third. This is a book I need to listen to more than once. So complex any mysterious.

Unusual, but thought-provoking

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This book is more of an exploration of reading than a novel. Calvino’s examination of authors, readers and reading evolves through a strange puzzle of unfinished novels and a reader’s search for the rest of each story. The novel may be intellectually brilliant, but it does not make the best story to listen to for entertainment . Unless you are seeking a literary challenge, I recommend this only as a great book to fall asleep to.

Intellectual exercise

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While it was amusing and funny at first, it started to get old when the same obstacle kept repeating itself. By the half way point I was getting pretty exasperated and antsy for the book to just end especially with the random and uncomfortable pornographic scenes. It was very intellectual and sharp but just a little to random and unfocused for my taste. The narrator did a great job though.

Narrator was great

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My mind kept wandering. I found the book a dull. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had read the book instead of listening to it. The story skipped around and was difficult for me to follow without having visual cues.

Was difficult to listen to.

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