The Castle of Crossed Destinies (Picador Books)

by Italo Calvino

A group of travellers chance to meet, first in a castle, then a tavern. Their powers of speech are magically taken from them and instead they have only tarot cards with which to tell their stories. What follows is an exquisite interlinking of narratives, and a fantastic, surreal and chaotic history of all human consciousness.

• ISBN10: 0156154552
• ISBN13: 9780156154550
• Publish Date: 19 January 1981 (first published 1 January 1977)
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Houghton Mifflin
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 144
• Language: English

Reviews

[jamiereadthis]

A lot of Ariosto, a little of Boccaccio, a lot of Homer, Sophocles, and Shakespeare and a little of Dante too. Had I not been recently indulging in all of those authors, the story might have lost me, but now it’s just in good company. There’s even specific references to Sade that would have flown past me three months ago. So yes, this meta story on “the story that’s hidden in the warp of all stories” is, in Calvino fashion, a damn fine way to spend an evening. Everything does connect.

Leave me like this. I have come full circle and I understand. The world must be read backward. All is clear.