The Circumference of the World by Lavie Tidhar

I’ve read Lavie Tidhar before and liked it very much. Now it was time to fall in love. What can I say? I love clever books and I cannot lie. And Tidhar in this novel absolutely dazzles with his cleverness.
I also love books about books and writers. Naturally. In this novel, Tidhar invents a golden age science fiction author who buys into his own fiction and ends up inventing a religion. (That sounds vaguely familiar, no? ;) ) The book that started it all becomes a much-searched-for near-mythical impossible-to-obtain object. And a cast of fascinating original characters get obsessed with looking for it.
The book is told from each of their perspectives, plus the biographical tale of the author and the oh-so-appropriate dénouement. That’s a lot to pack into just 256 pages. But not for an author of Tidhar’s caliber. Boy, can that man write. There’s such beauty and succinctness to his narration.
I dislike oversized overblown narratives as much as I love clever books—a lot. And this story is just about perfect in both length and execution. Because it’s too good to put down for long and is easily possible to read in one day as I did.
Impossible to genre class this one; science fiction, sure, but also so much more. A grand adventure. A love letter to science fiction. A pure joy to read. A stunning puzzle of a book. Recommended.  Thanks Netgalley.