Jasper Fforde

One of Woody Allen’s funniest short stories involves a humanities professor who has a disastrous affair with Emma Bovary by magically transporting himself into Gustave Flaubert’s novel. Welsh writer Fforde takes this concept to a whole new level in his three very witty novels about Thursday Next, a detective who works the mean streets of Western literature. Bibliophiles will find the newest, The Well of Lost Plots, a hoot. Though Fforde’s love for extended tangents makes it occasionally difficult to follow the storyline, the tangents themselves are exceptionally clever. Where else will you find Wuthering Heights characters grumbling and complaining through a court-ordered rage-counseling session?
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