Uncorrected Proofs

Niccolò Errante, a famous writer who kept almost everyone at a distance, is dead after falling from the balcony of his apartment. His proofreader is convinced it was no accident. Years earlier, the two men had started a private game in which Errante sent short stories deliberately full of mistakes, with the errors serving as clues to a hidden message.

The proofreader has now written a book of his own, and it contains exactly one thousand mistakes. They include typos, wrong words, grammatical slips, factual errors, contradictions and missing information. None of them are the result of careless editing. He placed every one of them on purpose, carrying on the game he once played with Errante, and the mistakes hold the evidence of what really happened on the day the writer died.

Readers who spot the errors can reassemble the secret message and work out how Errante died. The book is written for anyone who enjoys a puzzle and careful reading. Translated from the Italian by Richard Dixon.