Invisible Cities

Italo Calvino

In a garden sit the aged Kublai Khan and the young Marco Polo—Tartar emperor and Venetian traveler. Kublai Khan has sensed the end of his empire coming soon. Marco Polo diverts the emperor with tales of the cities he has seen in his travels around the empire: cities and memory, cities and desire, cities and designs, cities and the dead, cities and the sky, trading cities, hidden cities. Soon it becomes clear that each of these fantastic places is really the same place.—Findaway World Llc.

"One of my favorite books in the MCPL collection. Its story is simple and poetic, but leaves loads of wide-open space for interpretation and application. It's packed with beautiful, philosophical allusions to people, time, place, memory, and social mysteries, all hung on the fictionalized framework of Marco Polo abstractly describing Kublai Khan's kingdom in intentionally obscure, dreamlike detail. I love it!"—Submitted by Mike A., Production Assistant, CATS