If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

“You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino’s new novel.” A book about the pleasure of reading that is itself a pleasure to read. Calvino’s masterpiece is Italian literature at its most inventive and most joyful.

Why Start Here

Calvino is the ideal entry point because he demonstrates what Italian literature does that no other tradition matches: make intellectual play feel effortless. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler is both a love letter to books and a dazzling feat of construction, and it works whether you have read one novel or a thousand.

What to Expect

A novel made of ten beginnings and a connecting love story. The structure is unusual but the reading experience is pure pleasure. Can be read straight through or savored.