The Boy and the Islands (a Dream of Calvino's) (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781955995160)

A mild-mannered man, nearing the end of his short life, arrives in Sanremo. His name is Walter Benjamin, and he has little luggage with him, including a suitcase full of illustrated books. In the city of palm trees, he meets a curious boy named Italo Calvino. The two meet three or four times and talk mainly about what Walter would like him to write: the story of a child and his ball that gets lost in the alleys and crosses the railroad tracks. The child does not want to leave his precious possession there, but at the same time he cannot disobey his mother's order: you must not cross the tracks. What to do? Soon Walter and Italo say goodbye and never see each other again, unaware that the child, doubly evoked by their imagination, had become real. And he has only one way to get his ball back: follow the tracks, follow the course of stories, search for the end, even if it takes a lifetime or more. An evocative and poignant novel, a tribute to that daydream that is literature.