A complete English-language edition of Calvino’s early short story collection. Calvino was a fabulist and master of the surreal but this collection of early stories shows the enigmatic writer in a more realist mode. Taking place in Italy, both during and after the Second World War, rich with the beauty of the Italian countryside and seaside, these are sumptuous and at times unnerving stories. Circling the ludicrousness of war and the human condition, Calvino’s war-torn Italy is vivid, intense, almost hyper-real.