The Nocturnal Library: Bk. 2 (Changelings) - Softcover

A fantastic evocation of life and learning in a dream sequence: Jerome, who has to sit an exam and suffers from toothache, enters a nighmarish library in which everything conspires to frustrate his desperate attempts to revise. Cavazzoni creates an entire world in this dream, whose absurd perhaps comments on the more muted absurdity of reality. The library contains geological and natural realities that plague the organic matter of which the books are made, demonstrating or at least suggesting the futility of human learning. In some parts of the building the books have turned into peat. Cavazzoni admits that his books pushe the novel to its very limits - "like outpourings of the maniacal," he says. "That's how they come to me, you must understand."

Ermanno Cavazzoni's first novel was made into Fellin's last film, The Voices of the Moon. His novels have been translated into many languages (French, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, Danish and English). This is only his second book in English, and it is to be hoped that on this occasion there will be more interest in his experimental style.