The Books of Jasper Fforde

Gothamist has been hearing a lot about Jasper Fforde lately, and Newsday has a feature about the British author (whose background includes stints as a film cameraman and living in a family of Oxonians). His books are described thusly:

Part mystery, part science fiction, part satire, part lit-crowd entertainment, these hard-to-classify books cross genres with abandon. Consider what Fforde is juggling: Time-travel, newly discovered Shakespeare plays, a machine enabling people to enter classic works of fiction and interact with characters, Ice Age mammoths and 20th century Orwellian bureaucracy - all these elements coexist in the same fictional universe.

Fforde's book, The Eyre Affair was recommended to me by my boss. Obviously, she is very perceptive about things I like, as the heroine of his books, Thursday Next, is called a combination of "Nancy Drew, Bridget Jones, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xena: Warrior Princess."

Read an excerpt of his new book, Lost in a Good Book. This time, Thursday meets up with Miss Havisham of Great Expectations.

Fforde's official website