Numbers in the Dark

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Numbers in the Dark
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Italo Calvino
Revised by Martin McLaughlin
SeriesPenguin Modern Classics
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:288
Dimensions(mm): Height 198,Width 129
Category/GenreModern and contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
Short stories
ISBN/Barcode 9780141189741
ClassificationsDewey:853.914
Audience
General
Illustrations integrated black and white

Publishing Details

Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint Penguin Classics
Publication Date 28 May 2009
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

New to Penguin Modern Classics Numbers in the Dark is a collection of short stories covering the length of Italo Calvino's extraordinary writing career, from when he was a teenager to shortly before his death. They include witty allegories and wise fables; a town where everything has been forbidden apart from the game of tip-cat; a pitiable tribe watching the flight paths of guided missiles from outside their mud huts; a computer programmer considering the possible sequence of a series of brutal acts; and dialogues with Henry Ford, a Neanderthal and the gloomy, overthrown Montezuma ...

Author Biography

Italo Calvino, one of Italy's finest postwar writers, has delighted readers around the world with his deceptively simple, fable-like stories. He was born in Cuba in 1923 and raised in San Remo, Italy; he fought for the Italian Resistance from 1943-45. He died in Siena in 1985. Tim Parks was born in Manchester in 1954, studied at Cambridge and Harvard, and moved to Italy in 1980, where he lectures on literary translation in Milan. His translations from the Italian include works by Alberto Moravia, Italo Calvino, Roberto Calasso and Antonio Tabucchi. His account of provincial life in Italy, Italian Neighbours, was an international bestseller.

Reviews

'The author's command of detail and his fine, inventive imagination, his ability to turn ideas upside down and inside out, his awareness of the comic capacity of everyday life, are always ready to surprise and delight.' Literary Review