Ferdydurke

Summary/Description: An adult man is inexplicably forced to live as a teenage boy. Utterly demented, venomous, and hilarious absurdist satire of modern (that is, mid-20th century) European culture. Witold G. to world: BITE ME.

Importance: First published in Poland in 1937; banned by the Nazis and the Soviets, un-banned in Poland in the late 1950s, then banned AGAIN when too many dissidents started getting into it. Still relevant, and a fantastic and deeply disturbing read. Several English translations are now available; to my mind the best one is the first, by Eric Mosbacher, from 1961.

"Spoiler" to give you a better idea of what this book is like than anything else I could say: By the end of the novel, the sun has turned into a giant ass in the sky.