'Beautifully nimble, solitary feats of imagination' Seamus Heaney
Italo Calvino (Author)
Italo Calvino was born in Cuba in 1923 and grew up in Italy. He was
an essayist and journalist and a member of the editorial staff of
Einaudi in Turin. One of the most respected writers of the
twentieth century, his best-known works of fiction include
Invisible Cities, If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, Marcovaldo
and Mr Palomar. In 1973 he won the prestigious Premio Feltrinelli.
He died in 1985. A collection of Calvino's posthumous personal
writings, The Hermit in Paris, was published in 2003.
William Weaver (Translator)
William Weaver has translated Umberto Eco, Italo Svevo, Primo Levi,
Italo Calvino and Roberto Calasso, among others. He is a professor
at Bard College.
Here, Calvino, probably Italy's leading novelist before he died,
focuses a probing eye on one man's attempt to name the parts of his
universe, almost as though Mr Palomar were trying to define and
explain his own existence. Where the Palomar telescope points out
into space, Mr Palomar points in: walking the beach, visiting the
zoo, strolling in his garden. Each brief chapter reads like an
exploded haiku, with Mr Palomar reading an universe into the
proverbial grain of sand
*Time Out*
Beautifully nimble, solitary feats of imagination
Calvino represents a high point of literary evolution; his skill is
immense but retains a simian agility. As ever, his gaze is crystal
clear and his writing has the easy beauty of clarity.
*New Statesman*
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