Henny Vlot Books

Absurde verhalen over gefingeerde historische figuren.

Viscount Medardo is bisected by a Turkish cannonball on the plains of Bohemia; Baron Cosimo, at the age of twelve, retires to the trees for the rest of his days; Charlemagne's knight, Agiluf, is an empty suit of armour. These three vivid images are the points of departure for Calvino's classic triptych of moral tales, now published in one volume and all displaying the exuberant talent of a master storyteller.

The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. His delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths that take place in seven days and nights of apocalyptic terror. The body of one monk is found in a cask of pigs' blood, another is floating in a bathhouse, still another is crushed at the foot of a cliff.

"Like the nervous hero of Mr. Palomar (superbly translated by William Weaver), Italo Calvino, always had a telescope's eye for what can only be called the thingness of things. Stars and planets, birds, a loaded food counter, all take on an extra reality, as though observed for the first time in wonder by a man previously blind. Mr Calvino was a magician whose voice commanded us: listen, look, understand. His tone was wryly humorous, his style perfect, his treatment literally fabulous. Through his minute attention to the surface of things he demonstrated the universal." — The Sunday Telegraph

Italo Calvino's classic, multifaceted novel about writing and readers.

Een Italiaan raakt als krijgsgevangene tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog in de Verenigde Staten verzeild en begint een lange tocht naar Texas.