Last Comes the Raven, Italo Calvino
Last Comes the Raven, Italo Calvino
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Last Comes the Raven

Author: Italo Calvino

Narrator: Jefferson Mays

Unabridged: 8 hr 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 09/07/2021

Categories: Fiction, Classic


Synopsis

The first complete English-language edition of one of Calvino’s important early short story collections

Blending reality and illusion with elegance and precision, the stories in this collection—one of Calvino’s earliest—take place in a World War II–era and postwar Italy tinged with the visionary and fablelike qualities that would come to define this master storyteller’s later style. A trio of gluttonous burglars invade a pastry shop; two children trespass upon a forbidden garden; a wealthy family invites a rustic goatherd to lunch, only to mock him. In the title story, a compact masterpiece of shifting perspectives, a panicked soldier tries to keep his wits—and his life—when he faces off against a young partisan with a loaded rifle and miraculous aim. Throughout, Calvino delights in discovering hidden truths beneath the surface of everyday life.

Stories from Last Comes the Raven have been published in translation, but the collection as a whole has never appeared in English. This volume, including several stories newly translated by Ann Goldstein, is an important addition to Calvino’s legacy.

About Italo Calvino

Italo Calvino (1923-1985) was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy, the short story collection Cosmicomics, and the novels Invisible Cities and If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. He received numerous awards for his work, including the Riccione Prize and the Saint-Vincent Prize. Lionized in Britain and the United States, he was the most-translated contemporary Italian writer at the time of his death, and a noted contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kuszma on May 17, 2024

Pucér kissrácok azúrkék tengerbe csobbannak. Szikár paraszt öszvér háta mögött baktat. Az erdőben mohos szikla, mögötte partizán némán fegyvert szegez. Calvino elbeszéléseiben a szép és a piszkos gyakran szinonim, ami tragikusnak ígérkezik, néha komikumba fordul, ami pedig komikus, tragédiát rejt. A......more

Goodreads review by Anastasia on October 23, 2018

(3,5*) Όπως και σε κάθε ανάγνωσμα που έχει πέσει στα χέρια μου, δεν μπορώ να αποφύγω να σχηματίζω στο μυαλό μου μια πιθανή τελική εντύπωση και βαθμολογία καθ' όλη τη διάρκεια της ανάγνωσης. Ειδικότερα όταν ένα βιβλίο αποτελείται από επιμέρους μικρότερα διηγήματα, είναι εύκολο με το πέρας κάθε ιστορία......more

Goodreads review by Matthew Ted on December 03, 2023

151st book of 2023. I've read all of Calvino's novels so when this new translated collection came into work, I grabbed it as a greedy completionist. I'm yet to read all his Cosmicomics, but this is essentially an updated version of the already published Adam, One Afternoon. So, some of those stories......more

Goodreads review by Margherita Dolcevita on November 14, 2010

Calvino ha scritto la maggior parte di questi racconti a poco più di 20 anni. Non mi viene in mente nessun altro che così giovane abbia scritto così bene. Certo, non tutti i racconti sono efficaci ed emozionanti, ma ci sono alcuni gioiellini davvero imperdibili. La resistenza vista dall'interno, pic......more

Goodreads review by Bookfreak on September 27, 2018

3,5 Νεανικά διηγήματα του μεγάλου Ιταλού, για τους φανς κυρίως.......more