Mr Palomar

More about the book

"Like the nervous hero of <i>Mr. Palomar</i> (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