This chapter has been absolutely delightful in its revelations. Having broken the pattern of second person (Reader) as narrator pov, it has switched to first person and that in the character of Silas Flannery, author of portions (perhaps) of this mysterious novel. And who comes to see him, after Lotaria and Ludmilla, and after his connection with the translator Ermes Marana, but the Reader! Appearing in this chapter (8) in the third person via the first!
Bad enough that Flannery sends the seekers of alien life after him, but the novel he brings to show Flannery is stolen by them. What does this mean? But it gets even better, and here is likely a spoiler of sorts:
I have had the idea of writing a novel composed only of beginnings of novels. The protagonist could be a Reader who is continually interrupted. The Reader buys the new novel A by the author Z. But it is a defective copy…(p. 197)
How glorious!
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology