Invisible Cities
by Italo Calvino · first published 1997
58% recommend40% neutral2% critical
Why HN recommends it
Short, layered novel framed as Marco Polo describing fantastical cities to Kublai Khan, each vignette revealing something about memory, civilization and human experience. Suits readers of Borges or magical realism.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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I always recommend Italo Calvino. An underrated Italian writer IMHO. The Baron In The Trees or the Invisible Cities are a good start.
on “Umberto Eco has died” ↗One of my favorite passages of prose is from Calvino's "Invisible Cities"; I can't pass up the opportunity to share it on HN: "When a man rides a long time through wild regions he feels the desire for a city. Finally he comes to Isidora, a city where the buildings have spiral…
on “Italo Calvino, The Art of Fiction No. 130 (1992)” ↗I’ve been getting into Italo Calvino after reading Invisible Cities, which was great. Right now I’m reading The Baron in the Trees.
on “Ask HN: What are you reading these days?” ↗You're going to enjoy spending time with Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. It's mostly metaphor, his writing style is quite vivid. The interactions of people and things in his fictional cities touch on many facets of what it is to be alive. It's short. You…
on “Ask HN: Good literature for a technical guy” ↗Heavily second the Italo Calvino recommendation. Although I love Invisible Cities, I think "If on a winter's night a traveler" is probably even better for the technically minded. It's somewhat recursive in structure, as the book is actually about reading itself. Highly recommended.
on “Ask HN: Good literature for a technical guy” ↗Antifragile by Nassim Taleb Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino Il deserto dei tartari (The Tartar Steppe) by Dino Buzzati How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
on “Ask HN: Which books changed your life?” ↗I never read this one but I can recommend on the topic of imaginary places: "Invisible cities" from Italo Calvino and "Labirinths" from Jorge Luis Borges. These books were a must read when I was an architecture student. And if you are really into this topic you can also read "The poetics of space"…
on “Umberto Eco on the Greatest Maps of Imaginary Places (2014)” ↗…but the magical realism genre has a lot of amazing pieces, and the genre is based around fantastical elements. My favorite example of this is "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel García Márquez. "Invisible Cities" by Italo Calvino is another good one.
on “Harper Lee has died” ↗Calvino, Invisible Cities — human life is so rich in complexity and detail that an infinite number of projections can be constructed to study slices of it, that are each worthy of their own story Hesse, Steppenwolf — read this…
on “Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?” ↗+1 for Invisible Cities, and just about everything else by Calvino. Also, is your HN name a Borges reference?
on “Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?” ↗To venture into the more poetic/artistic realm, I really recommend Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. It’s quite short, but so layered that I actually have a hard time describing it. Framed as a conversation between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan, the book is a series of vignettes describing…
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino Prose poems, short 1-2 page descriptions of fictional cities. It’s a good gift to give and I like to pick it up at random, open to a random one, and sit with the imagery it conjures.…
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗At one point in my younger years I read The Unbearable Lightness of Being, 100 Years of Solitude by Marquez, and Invisible Cities by Calvino all back to back. These books changed me for the better at the time and I think about scenes from each in my daily life all in about the same sort of way. Beautiful imagery, pointed human…
on “Milan Kundera, ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ Novelist, Dies at 94” ↗I was introduced to Calvino this year and picked up Invisible Cities for the first. It was amazing how evocative the descriptions were. If On A Winter's Night is a great place to go next, but I don't think you can go wrong with any of them.
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2023 and recommend for 2024” ↗Anything based on Invisible Cities by Ítalo Calvino
on “Ask HN: What game do you wish existed?” ↗