91É«ÇéƬ

Dip inside Mr Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder by Lawrence Weschler (Pantheon, $21, ISBN 0 679 43998 6) and you’re in for a wonderful, if puzzling, read. Weschler claims this as the first nonfiction work of magic realism, and his account of the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles baffles, enlightens and lures you on to the next chapter. An account of ants, a tour of a museum, a curator who lectured on peculiar topics (later revealed to be imaginary) to museologists – all blend into a haze of belief, occasionally riven by the shock of something unlikely (bats trapped in leaden cages). But this only encourages you to reread the book, searching for the elusive point where fact and artifice went their separate ways. A treat.