The Castle Of Crossed Destinies

"A shamelessly original work of art." —New York Times

A brilliant, deeply inventive story in which a group of travelers' powers of speech are magically taken from them and only have tarot cards with which to tell their stories

A group of road-weary travelers convene first in a castle, then a tavern. After passing through a forest on their journey, their powers of speech are mysteriously taken from them. As each traveler attempts to tell the story of how they got here, they must relay on tarot cards instead of words. What follows is an exquisite interlinking of narratives, and a fantastic, surreal and chaotic history of all human consciousness. The Castle of Crossed Destinies is a bold and singular work, a stunning exploration of the visual and the verbal, from one of the most celebrated experimental authors of all time.

Featuring reproductions of fifteenth-century tarot cards

"Calvino's The Castle of Crossed Destinies takes great risks—artificiality, eclecticism, self-absorption, ponderousness, triviality (what, yet another interpretation of the world's great myths?)—and, despite its risks, wins hands down...a shamelessly original work of art."

"The marriage of the verbal and the visual in The Castle of Crossed Destinies seems almost prodigious. It is as if sulpher and mercury had at last fused into gold." - Times Literary Supplement (London)

"A work that celebrates storytelling… Magical." - The Times (UK)