The Raw Shark Texts (2007)

Two years after his girlfriend drowns, Eric Sanderson awakens with a case of amnesia and finds 100-plus letters signed by the mysterious, all-knowing ''first Eric Sanderson'' — a ghost? Or a figment of his imagination? Using the first Eric's writings as a guide, the amnesiac travels to unseen realms like the stream of human thought, an actual ocean complete with sea life and a mystical ship. Steven Hall's The Raw Shark Texts is quirky even for meta-fiction — the novel includes abstract diagrams and flipbooks, and can be confusing. But when he hits his stride, particularly during a climactic man-versus-shark chase on the high seas, Texts is exhilarating. B+