What are some books that think outside the linear first- or third-person storyline? Some examples I can think of include:
– *Homegoing* by Yaa Gyasi.
The book starts out with two sisters separated in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. One stays in Africa, the other is taken to America. The rest of the book bounces back and forth between across the ocean, each covering a direct descendant of these two women for about 300 years. The author had to create a character, world, and story for each individual chapter of the book, basically making the reader connect with this newly-introduced person in the span of just a few pages.
– *The Lovely Bones* by Alice Sebold.
The narrator is telling her story after having been murdered.
– *Inland* by Téa Obreht.
One half of the book told the story of a woman struggling in the American southwest in the 1800s. It took me a good while to figure out who was narrating the other half of the book: >!A dead body riding around on camelback.!<
– *Always Never* by Jordi Lefabre.
This one’s a graphic novel told backwards. Chapter 1 is actually the end of the story, and each chapter works its way back in time until you arrive at the last chapter, which is the beginning of the story.
EDIT: Adding *Asymmetry* by Lisa Halliday.
Two different narrators break the book up into three parts: Alice’s story part 1, Amar’s story, then Alice’s story part 2. I had to read the reviews after finishing this story to figure out what the author had done, but it was brilliant.
*There There* by Tommy Orange. There is a pow-wow happening in Oakland. Each chapter follows the life of a different attendee in the weeks leading up to the event.
by imabaaaaaadguy
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Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
It’s written like a journal with notes in the margins and stuff. Plus it’s a GREAT book.
I once knew a guy who wanted to find House of Leaves’ audiobook.
I struggled with how to tell him I have no idea how a House of Leaves audiobook could possibly work while also not spoiling what makes House of Leaves kind of fun and trippy.
“If on a winter’s night a traveler” by Italo Calvino is about trying to read “If on a winter’s night a traveler”.
Nabokov likes to play with framing devices, a lot of his books are “found documents”. He goes for broke with “Pale Fire” a 100-line poem with a novel written in the footnotes.
“Cloud Atlas” unfolds as a series of. . . nested realities I guess?