Book 26: "Unique Item" by Milorad Pavic

WARNING:

Just as smoking is bad for your health,
so is the reading of a hundred endings
of the same book.
It is almost like gaining one hundred
deaths instead of one.
This book is described as a delta novel, with the story having a hundred possible endings. The endings were originally published in a separate book, but this English translation has everything in one volume. Unfortunately there were a lot of translation and editing errors, which would need addressing if this book is republished and made widely available in English.

An odd book, but odd in a good way, as I did enjoy it, but I was weak and read all the possible endings before choosing the one I liked best. My favourite editing error was 'rubble' for 'rabble'. I'm fairly sure that Pushkin's characters were attacked by an angry mob rather than having a building fall on them!

I chose ending number 26, which left Chief Inspector Stross with his suspicions about the suspects' degrees of guilt and innocence but no proof.

Erlangen is less guilty than could be concluded from the sentence he received. Distelli is more guilty than he seems, and than can be proven. Lempytzka had to have somebody else behind her as well, but we don't know whom. Klozewitz is the most suspicious of them all, but there is almost no tangible argument against him.