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  • Mr. Palomar by Italo Calvino book cover
  • Mr. Palomar by Italo Calvino book cover
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Mr. Palomar

by Italo Calvino

Observation as a search for order

$14.59 USD
$24.32 USD $14.59 USD
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Awards & Recognition

  • Critical praise

    Praise from Seamus Heaney

    Attributed praise: “Beautifully nimble, solitary feats of imagination.”

AlbakiReads Editorial

Observation as a search for order

Mr. Palomar turns close attention to everyday sights into a way of asking how knowledge is formed. Its central figure studies subjects ranging from cheese and a gecko to a sunbather and migrating birds, moving between the visible surface of things and the possibility of what lies beneath. The book’s organizing tension is between a desire for order and a world described as chaotic and unreasonable. Its varied objects of attention give that inquiry a concrete, episodic shape, linking small acts of looking with broader questions about understanding.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • For readers interested in fiction built around observation and reflection.
  • For readers drawn to Italian and world literature.
  • For readers who enjoy books that explore knowledge, perception, and the search for order.

Themes

Observation and perceptionKnowledge and understandingOrder amid chaos

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

"Beautifully nimble, solitary feats of imagination." --Seamus Heaney

"Beguiling." --Time

A superbly crafted novel about one man's quest for order and reason in a chaotic and unreasonable world

Mr. Palomar is a delightful eccentric whose chief activity is looking at things. He is seeking knowledge; 'it is only after you have come to know the surface of things that you can venture to seek what is underneath'. Whether contemplating a fine cheese, a hungry gecko, a woman sunbathing topless or a flight of migrant starlings, Mr. Palomar's observations render the world afresh.


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