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Invisible Cities

  • Book
  • Nov 3, 1972
  • #Fantasy
Italo Calvino
@ItaloCalvino
(Author)
www.goodreads.com
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4.13/5 52.6k ratings
6 Recommenders
6 Mentions
2 Asks
"Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening... Show More

"Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening to the young Venetian with greater attention and curiosity than he shows any other messenger or explorer of his." So begins Italo Calvino's compilation of fragmentary urban images. As Marco tells the khan about Armilla, which "has nothing that makes it seem a city, except the water pipes that rise vertically where the houses should be and spread out horizontally where the floors should be," the spider-web city of Octavia, and other marvelous burgs, it may be that he is creating them all out of his imagination, or perhaps he is recreating fine details of his native Venice over and over again, or perhaps he is simply recounting some of the myriad possible forms a city might take.

(From Goodreads)

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Natural Warp @Natural_Warp · Jul 16, 2022
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Alessandro Piazza @Alessandro_2043 · Jan 7, 2023
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bellissimo libro
Sophie Cleland @ClelandScleland · Jan 7, 2023
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This was also mine - still love it to this day
Boidus @Boidus · Jan 7, 2023
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You have to go there many times over to understand what is being described in the book. It’s fabulous once you get the many many parts of Venice. A sense of place is multi faceted.
austin @AustinGaebe · Jan 8, 2023
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This book continues to haunt me, I think about it every time I walk aimlessly through a new neighborhood or city
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