Book excerpt: From the acclaimed, genre-bending Italian fabulist author, a posthumous collection of career-spanning stories previously unavailable in English. “Everybody telephones everybody at every possible moment, and nobody can speak to anybody . . . Distance has been the warp that supports the weft of every love story.” —from Numbers in the Dark Written between 1943 and 1984, the stories in Numbers in the Dark span the career of one of fiction’s modern masters: from Italo Calvino’s earliest fables, to tales informed by life in World War II–era Italy, to the delightful experimentation that would define his later work. Here are speculative stories on life in the digital age, genre-bending wonders, and “impossible interviews” with the likes of Montezuma and a Neanderthal. Deftly translated by Tim Parks, Numbers in the Dark shows off Calvino’s lifelong gift for subtle humor and shimmering philosophical insight. Praise for Numbers in the Dark “Numbers in the Dark is a glorious grab-bag . . . [with] enough gems from every phase in Calvino’s career to make it feel indispensable.” —Seattle Times “These stories reward the patient reader with wisdom, humor, and insight.” —Library Journal “Calvino . . . is well-represented in this continually surprising collection . . . . Novelist Parks's superb translations capture Calvino’s quirky, iconoclastic voice, helping to make this a worthy addition to the Calvino shelf.” —Publishers Weekly