If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

Legacy and opinion

Dave Langford reviewed If on a winter's night a traveler for White Dwarf #45, and declared it "a splendidly batty book about books. [...] Offbeat and fun."[7]

The Telegraph included the novel in 69th place in a list of "100 novels everyone should read" in 2009, describing it as a "playful postmodernist puzzle".[8]

Author David Mitchell described himself as being "magnetised" by the book from its start when he read it as an undergraduate, but on rereading it, felt it had aged and that he did not find it "breathtakingly inventive" as he had the first time, yet does stress that "however breathtakingly inventive a book is, it is only breathtakingly inventive once" – with once being better than never.[9]

Novelist and lecturer Scarlett Thomas uses it to teach innovative contemporary fiction, as an example of different kinds of narrative techniques.[10]

Sting named his 2009 album If on a Winter's Night... after the book.[11]

English musician and composer Bill Ryder-Jones released the album If... on 14 November 2011. The album is a musical adaptation of the book and serves as an "imaginary film score".[12]

The 2021 video game If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers was named after the book.

A radio adaptation of the book starring Toby Jones, Indira Varma and Tim Crouch was recorded as part of BBC's 100 years of Radio Drama Celebrations and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 24 Sep 2023.[13]


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