This is a stunning collection of fables and stories written between 1943 and 1958, excellently translated by Tim Parks. 'These are glittering fragments, pendants to Calvino's main opus, whose disturbing beauty they both share and help to interpret' - Sunday Telegraph. 'The author's command of detail and his fine, inventive imagination, his ability to turn ideas upside down ad inside out, his awareness of the comic capacity of everyday life, are always ready to surprise and delight' - Literary Review.