OUR STORE IS CLOSED ON ANZAC DAY: THURSDAY 25 APRIL
Italo Calvino, one of Italy's finest postwar writers, has delighted readers around the world with his deceptively simple, fable-like stories. Calvino was born in Cuba in 1923 and raised in San Remo, Italy; he fought for the Italian Resistance from 1943-45. His major works include Cosmicomics (1968), Invisible Cities (1972), and If on a winter's night a traveler (1979). He died in Siena in 1985, of a brain hemorrhage.
Rich and deeply satisfying ... this is very much a book that sets you off thinking ... there is a universe in here -- Nick Lezard * Guardian * No-one can read Angela Carter or David Mitchell without thinking of Calvino. Salman Rushdie is enthusiastic in his naming of Calvino as a major influence on his work, as am I. -- Jeanette Winterson Reading Calvino, you're constantly assailed by the notion that he is writing down what you have always known, except that you've never thought of it before . . . he tells us, joyfully, wickedly, that there are things in the world worth loving as well as hating; and that such things exist in people, too. I can think of no finer writer to have beside me while Italy explodes, while Britain burns, while the world ends. -- Salman Rushdie Calvino will continue to glitter, this strange, lonely prospector in the universe of words. . . a master in the empire of the imagination -- Ian Thomson * Independent * A genial as well as a brilliant writer -- John Updike A brilliant, original approach to literature, a key to Calvino's own work and a thoroughly delightful and illuminating commentary on some of the world's greatest writing * San Francisco Chronicle * Wonderful . . . full of wit and erudition * Telegraph *
