Mark Dunn – Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters
A great read for lovers of language. Dunn is both playful and makes a serious point about freedom of expression. He tells the story of the island of Nollop, named for the man who wrote a 35-letter sentence containing every letter of the alphabet: the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
One by one, the letters fall off a statue of Nollop containing the phrase, leading the island council to ban writing or speaking words containing those letters. Those letters also disappear from the book, making for very interesting reading as more and more letters fall. As the quality of life and language deteriorate—the two are closely related—the characters feverishly work to find a solution.
Inertia Wins! 