Invisible CitiesItalo Calvino's beloved, intricately crafted novel about an Emperor's travels—a brilliant journey across far-off places and distant memory. “Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.” In a garden sit the aged Kublai Khan and the young Marco Polo—Mongol emperor and Venetian traveler. Kublai Khan has sensed the end of his empire coming soon. Marco Polo diverts his host with stories of the cities he has seen in his travels around the empire: cities and memory, cities and desire, cities and designs, cities and the dead, cities and the sky, trading cities, hidden cities. As Marco Polo unspools his tales, the emperor detects these fantastic places are more than they appear. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - skavlanj - LibraryThingA Book That Was Originally Written In A Different Language A disappointment, after loving if on a winter's night a traveler. I think I would have gotten as much out of this book had I read it in the ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - stravinsky - LibraryThingwell, the dream-like language and fantastical imaginings reminded me a bit of Borges, except without a lesson to be learned. Though, I fully admit I may be too dense for this work. Read full review
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