The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco

This book has an extremely unpleasant main character with a split personality. When the book opens he's trying to determine his identity, which he can barely remember, and whose stability is compromised by garments and accoutrements that seem to belong to two lives rather than one. As the book goes on, the main character, Simonini, his alter ego, the Abbé Della Piccola, and the narrator work together to reconstruct Simonini's activities. Despite the main character's reprehensible views, the book is fascinating, as it ties together a wide range of nineteenth century conspiracy theories (from the Paris Commune to the Dreyfus Affair). It also reflects on the nature of forgery and on the difference between fabula and syuzhet--the latter in an afterword that traces the structure of the plot. Despite the complexities of the plot and theme, this book was easy to slip into and enjoyable to read.

The Tragedy of Arthur: A Novel by Arthur Phillips

This book is both dazzling and delightful. It purports to contain a newly-discovered play by Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Arthur, and a long introduction to that play by a version of the novelist Arthur Phillips. The reader quickly discovers she's in the midst of a tour de force, the likes of which hasn't been seen since Nabokov's Pale Fire. Arthur Phillips, the unreliable narrator of the novel, is convinced that his father, a skilled forger, forged the play, but Professor Verre, the scholarly voice that adds footnotes to Phillips's footnotes, is just as unreliable as he tries to justify his reading of the play that makes Shakespeare its author. The play itself is not a bad stab at an imitation of Shakespeare--it uses Holinshed just as Shakespeare did, and it borrows lines from some of Shakespeare's other plays. There are some really funny moments in the play too. Along the way, there's a dazzling variation on the Earl of Oxford thesis, interesting speculation on what could have caused this play to have been suppressed, lots of great family drama, and a lot of fun to be had at the narrator's expense. All in all, well worth enjoying.