Last Comes the Raven — Italo Calvino

Blending reality and illusion with elegance and precision, the stories in this collection take place in a World War II-era and postwar Italy tinged with the visionary and fable-like qualities. A trio of gluttonous burglars invades a pastry shop; two children trespass upon a forbidden garden; a wealthy family invites a rustic goatherd to lunch, only to mock him. In the title story, a compact masterpiece of shifting perspectives, a panicked soldier tries to keep his wits -- and his life -- when he faces off against a young partisan with a loaded rifle and miraculous aim.

Select stories from "Last Comes the Raven" have been published in translation, but the collection as a whole has never appeared in English. This volume, including several stories newly translated by Ann Goldstein, is an important addition to Calvino's legacy.