Italo Calvino Reading from Invisible Cities

By Chad

Invisible Cities is Calvino at his thematic and structural best. For more about this amazing book check out his Top 5 and Why. The following excerpt was recorded at the 92nd St. Y on March 31st, 1983. Skip ahead to the English portion of his reading if you prefer at 8:40 where Calvino reads from a section called “Thin Cities.” In this excerpt, Polo tells Khan of a place called “Armilla”:

Whether Armilla is like this because it is unfinished or because it has been demolished, whether the cause is some enchantment or only a whim, I do not know. The fact remains that it has no walls, no ceilings, no floors: it has nothing that makes it seem a city except the water pipes that rise vertically where the houses should be and spread out horizontally where the floors should be: a forest of pipes that end in taps, showers, spouts, overflows…”