Rich and deeply satisfying ... this is very much a book that sets you off thinking ... there is a universe in here
Nick Lezard
Guardian
No-one can read Angela Carter or David Mitchell without thinking of Calvino. Salman Rushdie is enthusiastic in his naming of Calvino as a major influence on his work, as am I.
Jeanette Winterson Reading Calvino, you're constantly assailed by the notion that he is writing down what you have always known, except that you've never thought of it before . . . he tells us, joyfully, wickedly, that there are things in the world worth loving as well as hating; and that such things exist in people, too. I can think of no finer writer to have beside me while Italy explodes, while Britain burns, while the world ends.
Salman Rushdie Calvino will continue to glitter, this strange, lonely prospector in the universe of words. . . a master in the empire of the imagination
Ian Thomson
Independent
A genial as well as a brilliant writer
John Updike A brilliant, original approach to literature, a key to Calvino's own work and a thoroughly delightful and illuminating commentary on some of the world's greatest writing
San Francisco Chronicle
Wonderful . . . full of wit and erudition
Telegraph