Time is out of joint

Description
Stories which challenge our experience of time, for example by manipulating the order in which events are recounted (not simply non-chronological narration or use of flashbacks)
1
Life: A User's Manual
by Georges Perec
4,250 members
66 reviews
½ 4.3
2 Members
corneggs, bluepiano
Explanations
bluepiano: All the events, all the characters, all the settings in the book unfold in time as it's normally perceived, yet their moments and years are erased.
2
Composition No. 1
by Marc Saporta
82 members
5 reviews
3.2
Member
bluepiano
Explanations
bluepiano: A book of un-bound pages, so the timeline differs with each reading. Saporta's intention was to suggest the importance of *when* events happen.
3
Time's Arrow
by Martin Amis
3,328 members
59 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
spiphany
Explanations
spiphany: The life of a Nazi war criminal, experienced with time running backwards from his death.
4
Latro in the Mist
by Gene Wolfe
683 members
8 reviews
4.1
Member
spiphany
Explanations
spiphany: Not strictly a manipulation of time, but the effect is similar for the reader; it is told from the perspective of a protagonist who is unable to form memories.
5
Betrayal
by Harold Pinter
677 members
9 reviews
3.9
Member
spiphany
6
Last Year at Marienbad
by Alain Robbe-Grillet
222 members
1 review
4.1
Member
bluepiano
Explanations
bluepiano: No one knows what time it is, not to mention what they said or did. Neither does the reader/viewer.
7
Archipel
by Inger-Maria Mahlke
51 members
5 reviews
½ 3.3
Member
spiphany
Explanations
spiphany: Starts in 2015 and moves backwards to 1919
8
Cocuk Nazi
by Andreas Okopenko
5 members
Member
spiphany
Explanations
spiphany: The Nazi years from the perspective of a boy. The sequence of episodes starts with the end of the war and moves backwards.
9
Spiegelgeschichte
by Ilse Aichinger
1 member
Member
spiphany
Explanations
spiphany: Upon death, a woman relives her life backwards
10
Schoonheid op aarde
by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz
71 members
1 review
4.1
Member
bluepiano
Explanations
bluepiano: Ramuz plays with perspective by playing with language: in many of his books his changes tense unexpectedly, confusing the reader's sense of time.
11
The Mammoth Book of Time Travel SF
by Mike Ashley
197 members
8 reviews
½ 3.3
Member
bluepiano
Explanations
bluepiano: Much of it's enjoyable for one reading at least and the stories are by no means stock scientist-in-time-machine stuff.
12
Slaughterhouse-Five
by Kurt Vonnegut
49,158 members
775 reviews
4.1
13
Use of Weapons
by Iain M. Banks
5,977 members
161 reviews
4
14
Counter-Clock World
by Philip K. Dick
1,382 members
33 reviews
½ 3.4
15
Greenwood: A Novel
by Michael Christie
807 members
37 reviews
4.1
16
Europeana: A Brief History of the Twentieth Century
by Patrik Ouředník
371 members
14 reviews
½ 3.7
17
High Tide
by Inga Abele
80 members
2 reviews
4.1
18
Feliz final
by Isaac Rosa
44 members
3 reviews
½ 3.4
19
Time of Passage [short story]
by J. G. Ballard
3 members
1 review
½ 3.5