During a summer trip, on a rainy day in PEI, we visited a bookstore in Charlottetown where I purchased this book. The bookstore looked like a used book store but most of the books were new. The proprietor had good taste in books. It is rare that I encounter any Italo Calvino in a store and was happy to pick up this book. One thing struck out to me later that I didn’t notice during my purchase. The price of $22.99 was written in pencil inside the book. This is what most used book stores do. However the original cover price had been hidden with a black marker. During reading I noticed there was black marker over the original cover price, and rubbed it off to see that the cover price was $17.99.
The book was published in 2001, and I purchased it in the summer of 2024 so I was not upset to be charged more than the cover price. The price of books has definitely gone up in 23 years. The person working there was an elderly woman with an old toy dog in the store, I assumed that she was the owner. I purchased this and Frankenstein, and she said “thank you” when I made my purchase. Most places, when you buy something, the clerk doesn’t say “thank you”. I read a lot in to that “thank you”, which may or may not be true. That book stores have it rough these days with internet shopping and e-readers. It definitely felt like a sad “thank you”, of an older woman that wished she could retire but works long hours at her bookstore.
What’s most interesting about this book is that Calvino disowned it after writing it. Prevented it from being published, then eventually revised it before allowing to be published again. To that end he discuses this in a 30 page preface before the start of the book. Which is a long preface considering the length of the book. I like to read books in chronlolgical order that an author has written them to see progression. This makes this edition a strange book. As this is Calivo’s first book but he revised it 20 years later after he became a more seasoned writer.
The book takes place in Italy during World War II, and follows Italian partisans fighting the Nazis from the mountains. Calvino himself fought as a partisan. The main character is Pin, a child that gets no childhood due to the war. Most of the story is through the viewpoint of Pin however it later shifts to other characters briefly.