If on a winter’s night a traveler

Calvino's 1979 novel — the one that begins "You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel" — translated by William Weaver for Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1981. The novel itself is a labyrinth of nested beginnings, each chapter starting a different book that never continues. A foundational text of postmodern fiction, still startling to read.

This is the early Harvest/HBJ paperback in the original design — white cover, green type, that particular photograph. A well-read copy that clearly did what it was supposed to do.