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The Tablet of Destinies

Roberto Calasso Tim Parks

$35

Hardback

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English
Allen Lane
01 November 2022
An immersive and entertaining tale based on the Mesopotamian myth of the Great Flood, from the renowned publisher and writer Roberto Calasso
'The Flood didn't come suddenly as a big surprise. It came at the end of a long, tormented story. Men just went on multiplying and the noise they made was ever more irksome . . . I remember days of desperation.'

A long time ago, the gods grew tired of humans and decided to send a flood to destroy them. But Ea, the god of fresh underground water, didn't agree. He advised one of his devotees, Utnapishtim, to build a quadrangular boat to house humans and animals, and saved these living creatures from the Flood.

Rather than punish Utnapishtim for his disobedience, Enlil, King of the gods, granted the mortal eternal life and banished him to the island of Dilmun.

Thousands of years later, when Sinbad the Sailor is shipwrecked and arrives on that very same island, the two begin a conversation about courage, loss, salvation and sacrifice.

Following Calasso's masterful retelling of ancient Greek myths in The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony and Indic myths in Ka, this richly imaginative work delves into the crucible of our collective consciousness to reimagine the origin stories of one of the earliest human civilizations.

By:  
Translated by:  
Imprint:   Allen Lane
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 222mm,  Width: 144mm,  Spine: 17mm
Weight:   244g
ISBN:   9780241537350
ISBN 10:   0241537355
Pages:   128
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  ELT Advanced ,  Primary
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Roberto Calasso (1941-2021) was the director of the renowned Italian publishing house Adelphi Edizioni and the author of numerous books, including the international bestseller The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, a touchstone in his wide-ranging series of works that map the emergence of mind from myth to modernity. The series began with The Ruin of Kasch and also includes Ka, K., Tiepolo Pink, La Folie Baudelaire, Ardor, The Celestial Hunter and The Unnamable Present.

Reviews for The Tablet of Destinies

A universe of blood, violence, and magic . . . A vigorous rendering of the remote past * Kirkus * Stimulating . . . Calasso's style calls to mind [Italo] Calvino's dreamlike fabulism . . . and Parks's translation is beautifully rendered and gripping, maintaining Calasso's dreamlike tone . . . Calasso vividly creates a world of gods and humankind that is unfamiliar, poetic, and memorable. This slim volume packs a potent and thought-provoking punch * Publishers Weekly * The 11th volume of the late Italian writer and polymath's investigation of ancient religion interprets Mesopotamian mythology to tell the story of Utnapishtim, an eternal figure who saved life on Earth from a catastrophic flood sent by vengeful and murderous gods * The New York Times *


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