For those who can read german: “Henry Frottey, sein erster Fall, Teil 2, das Ende der Trilogie” by Jan Philipp Zymny, who is a german absurdist comedian. Its a bit like the Dirk Gently Books by Dougkas Adams, though even more absurdist and less structured. A funny, but also exhausting read.

I don’t know, if there is an english translation.

The Last Wolf and Herman: the Game Warden & the Death of a Craft by László Krasznahorkai

House of Leaves would make a terrible audiobook if that’s the kind of thing you’re looking for.

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Edit: I’m not surprised to see that this is a popular response.

Another, different, one is The Fisherman by John Langan.

“The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime” is written in the narrative of a boy with aspergers, read it many years ago and enjoyed it a lot. Like, it really paints an interesting picture of how the world can also be experienced

A few I haven’t seen mentioned in the thread yet:

• Ducks, Newburyport - Lucy Ellman. It’s one sentence long, although it occupies 1,000 pages. It’s well though done that it doesn’t just feel like a creative writing exercise. It’s not necessarily something I’d recommend, but it’s surprisingly ok.
• If on a winter’s night a traveler - Italo Calvino. It’s about the reader (you) trying to read a book called “If on a winter’s night a traveler” It’s funny, and short enough to not push the bit too far. Every time you think you’re onto its trick, it finds a new one.
• Ulysses - James Joyce. A loose reframing of the Odyssey with the stakes massively lowered. Different chapters have different writing styles. Other works borrow ideas from this, so any individual attempt at innovation may be something you’ve seen elsewhere. For example, the single sentence stream of consciousness of Ducks, Newburyport was likely inspired by the 3 sentence closing chapter here. The book is kind of a lot. If you were to read it, it’s worth at least considering if you want to use a guide. The Joyce Project has a good wiki-style guide embedded in the text.

Iain M. Banks Feersum Endjin one of the characters narrates the story phonetically.

Alan Duff Once Were Warriors and sequels. Entirely written as interior monologues.

The broken earth trilogy by NK Jemisin is written in second person, interesting style and a good read. (Fantasy, sci-fi)

Gardens of the moon by Steven Erikson, not really ‘unique’ but he does a lot of show and tell, so if you’re willing to pay attention and think a long it’s a great read. (fantasy)

Station eleven had a really unique format. You could say there were multiple main characters from different timelines but I would almost argue there was not a “main” character. All of them were super fascinating in their own right and the transitions between them, and their timelines, was incredibly smooth. I didn’t find it confusing at all and I normally do with books formatted like this.

It’s a post pandemic dystopia that focuses on the role of art in helping people find purpose if you want the shortest possible synopsis.

Hoppscotch comes to mind. There are 2 ways to read, first is read chapters 1-56 and discard the rest. Second is follow the author’s order, which is 73, 1, 2, 116, 3, 84… At the end of each chapter it says where you should jump next. Plus there’s a lot of experimental stuff in it, steam of consciousness, news fragments, a chapter where the author made up his own language, fragments of a fictional writer, etc

Only thing is I don’t know how well the original Spanish translates to other languages (tho according to Wikipedia the English translator won some award so should be good).

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig is one of my most memorable reads. A cross between philosophy and mystery told from a first-person narrative in a somewhat autobiographical/travelogue manner.

I never finished it, but definitely House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. I’ll call it a “labyrinthian” horror story where both the narrative and physical formatting mirror the themes presented in the story. It’s hard to describe, but you have to at least find one in a bookstore and look through it. I don’t know if audio or digital versions exist, but I’d avoid them, you won’t get the whole experience.

Edit: Damn, took to long to write and somebody already mentioned it, lol.

In literary fiction, it’s probably As I Lay Dying. Flowers for Algernon is also a really neat concept (and a much easier, more enjoyable read).

Feersum Endjinn

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman