SOLVED. Science fiction, 1970's or maybe early 80's. Man's consciousness goes through a Moebius twist, meets woman named Celandine. Minor Spoiler ahead. [s]

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That's about all I remember about the plot. He went into a kind of coma in our world and felt awake in the world on the other side of the twist. When he mumbled in his coma in our world while on the other side, his speech was backwards here and forwards there. At one point he started to slip back through the twist and said, "The whole universe is inside me!", and it was forwards in our world and backwards on the other side of the twist.

The cover (hardcover book) illustration was a drawing of the faces of a man and woman who were facing each other, and their faces were cut into strips, where the faces' strips were joined to each other at the top and bottom.

MINOR SPOILER...
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The man and the woman Celandine whom he meets on the other side of twist become lovers.

[David]

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Bump. Thanks for looking!

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[stormhawk]

the origin of that piece of artwork is MC Escher, but I don't know the story.

[stormhawk]

Bond of Union is the name of the artwork. was it this image or just similar?

https://goo.gl/images/b96GMw

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Yes, that is the image that was on the cover! Another piece of the puzzle. Thank you, both!

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[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

None of these seem like a match though.


From: http://www.tess-elation.co.uk/m-c-esc...

[Nóinín]

The Prayer Machine
?

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SOLVED! :)

Nóinín, that's it! Thank you! I must have missed the e-mails notifying me about your post, and Lobstergirl's, or I would have responded sooner. Thank you both, but it is definitely the "The Prayer Machine" by Christopher Hodder-Williams, whose name sounds familiar to me now that I've heard it.

Thanks again!