[Kitdowstyhodo]

It's hard to say in just a few words how great is this book, by far the best I've read from Calvino.

This book mix of tales, chronic, poetry and novel deals about a conversation between Kublai Kahn, emperor of the Mongols and Marco Polo, the famous explorer who starts describing Kahn all of the cities he has visited.

The book is divided in 11 parts, each one containing 5 cities:

I. The cities and the memory
II. The cities and the desire
III.The cities and the signs
IV.The subtle cities
V. The cities and the trade
VI.The cities and the eyes
VII. The cities and the name
VIII.The cities and the death
IX. The cities and the sky
X. The continuous cities
X1.The hidden cities

All the cities have women names, and the descriptions are full of imagination and fantasy, depicting fabulous landscapes, unreal and marvelous places and very strange but accurate characteristics about the imaginary cities.

At the same time every city has a characteristic of the modern occidental city, dealing with important aspects and problematiques like demographics, pollution, spaces without meaning, the boredom, the tedium etc.

It is a majestic work by one of the greatest authors of the XX century.

The Calvino year continues and it's getting better. I'd like to know how Heteronym is going with his Calvino year.