Brezhat by Michael Holt

Brezhat by Michael Holt

Brezhat is a multi-timeline novella set in a single building appearing in three distinct forms: a school that records students' dreams, an orphanage that operates a glass factory, and a post-apocalyptic ruin squatted by eccentric survivors. The novel follows three incarnations of the same character, who live at different times, and occasionally cross paths with one another, sharing physical sensations, dreams, and experiences.

Mentoring--or possibly misleading--the characters is a cast of idiosyncratic adults: teachers, nuns, a librarian, an artist, a mathematician, a scientist, and a time-defying janitor. At the center of the narrative is a recurring antagonist: a former friend who engages in acts of violence that impact each version of the characters, causing their trauma to refract and repeat.

The book employs a nonlinear, recursive narrative approach with multiple recurring motifs, objects, and echoes of characters that emphasize iteration rather than traditional plot progression.