Palomar - Library of contemporary foreign writers

Is it possible to find meaning in things, in the world around us? And within ourselves? Mr. Palomar is far from certain about any of this. Yet, he continues to search.

An eccentric man in search of knowledge, a visionary in a sublime and ridiculous world, Palomar is a born observer. "Only after having known the surface of things," he believes, "can we venture to seek what lies beneath." Whether contemplating a bare breast, a cheese shop in Paris, the belly of a gecko, or the skies of Rome invaded by starlings, Mr. Palomar offers us a vision of the world that is familiar, yet fragmented by individual perception.

The last book published during Italo Calvino's lifetime, Palomar is a fascinating narrative about man's vertigo in the face of the universe's inexorable mysteries. A true literary testament from one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, it leads the reader through an inquiry with surprising results: Mr. Palomar is undoubtedly the author, but not only. It is all of us, the readers of this exciting book, one of the most profound in literature of all time.