Welcome to Litsy!

I can‘t upsell this book enough. If you‘re like me and enjoy old Twilight Zone episodes or The Black Mirror, then this should be right up your alley. Most of the stories delve into the recesses of the human psyche to explore fear, guilt, suspicion and the meaninglessness of human glory. Occasionally there‘s just revenge or grace as well. But it‘s all done with a flair of the funny, absurd and darkly ironic.

Fantastical and dark at times, whimsical at others, this collection of stories first published in 1965 and recently reissued (with a terrific new foreword by Kevin Brockmeier) was terrific. If Rod Serling and Italo Calvino had an artificial love child, Buzzati might be it. I‘d never heard of him until I came across mention of his story “Seven Floors” in an essay on aging. And yes, there‘s even a story called “The Epidemic”. Highly recommended.

Written in 1961, translated from the Italian in 1965, and reissued in 2018 with a new foreword by Kevin Brockmeier, each one of these stories feels like a Black Mirror episode. So far, I‘m loving them. Like stepping into a de Chiraco painting each time.