Whiteland, David -- The Knot-Shop Man
This is the one you haven't heard of (unless I commented on your blog
about it). It's a self-published quartet of fairy tales about a city
where you can go to tie down your fate -- to a person, to a goal. Is
this a good idea? The answer is ambiguous, as four different people
undertake four journeys, each under the tutelage of the proprietor of
a shop that sells knots. (Not rope, mind you.) The stories vary from a
sort of tragedy to a sort of triumph, and how you take the whole will
depend on what order you read them in -- the books quite overtly leave
this up to you. It's an interesting experiment, but the experiment is
less important than the author's deft, wry, and eminently readable
narration. Ordering this will cost you some cash (shipping costs to
the US particularly bite) but I recommend it anyhow. Get together with
three friends and you can all read it at the same time.
Books I have acquired recently
All the books I own