It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
Adam, One Afternoon

Adam, One Afternoon

Summary

An acclaimed collection of enchanting, comic and clever tales from the Italian master

This collection of playful, deadly febles is populated with waifs and strays, a gluttonous thief and a mischievous gardener. The grimly comic story The Argentine Ant moved Gore Vidal to declare 'if this is not a masterpiece of twentieth-century prose writing, I cannot think of anything better'.

Reviews

  • Italo Calvino's Adam, One Afternoon confirms the part he has played in revitalising the art of fiction in our time. In these beautifully translated stories, the quality of the writing emerges as clearly as do the ease and range of his inventiveness. Calvino's special gift is to link the physical and immediate with an allegorical timelessness-All the characters and creatures in these stories conspire to convey a feeling of the wonder, mystery and terror of life
    Guardian

About the author

Italo Calvino

Italo Calvino (1923-1985), one of Italy's finest postwar writers, has delighted readers around the world with his deceptively simple, fable-like stories. Calvino was born in Cuba in 1923 and raised in San Remo, Italy; he fought for the Italian Resistance from 1943-45. His major works include Cosmicomics (1968), Invisible Cities (1972), and If on a winter's night a traveler (1979). He died in Siena in 1985.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more