The Khazar Dictionary

"The Khazar Dictionary" is one of the most unusual works of world literature of our time, transcending traditional linear storytelling and approaching electronic hypertext. Milorad Pavic called "The Khazar Dictionary" a survival manual. This "novel-lexicon" consists of three interlinked mythologized stories, often contradicting each other. Moreover, each is based on one of the major Abrahamic religions — Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Between these millstones lies the shattered fate of a people. From these fragments, one can construct thousands of different plots, and the reader is invited to do so, as they "will assemble their book into a whole, like in a game of dominoes or cards, and will receive from this dictionary, as from a mirror, as much as they invest in it, because from the truth… you cannot receive more than you put into it." So this book can also serve as a manual for self-discovery — or simply as an exquisite and witty game of meanings. The novel exists in two versions, male and female, differing only by one paragraph (the current edition presents the male version).