{"product_id":"marcovaldo-by-italo-calvino","title":"'Marcovaldo' by Italo Calvino","description":"\u003ch4 data-start=\"39\" data-end=\"396\"\u003eOne of Calvino’s gentlest books, yet also one of his most odd. \u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"39\" data-end=\"396\"\u003e\u003cem data-start=\"86\" data-end=\"98\"\u003eMarcovaldo\u003c\/em\u003e follows a poor labourer drifting through an industrial Italian city, continually trying to recover some fragment of wonder, nature or dignity from the machinery of modern life. Mushrooms growing beside bus stops become treasure. A billboard becomes landscape. A rabbit escape turns briefly mythic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"398\" data-end=\"729\"\u003eThe stories are funny, melancholy and deceptively light. Calvino is a fabulist but underneath it sits a very real postwar anxiety about urbanisation, alienation and the way capitalism reorganises perception itself. Marcovaldo is constantly searching for beauty in places structurally designed to erase it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"731\" data-end=\"847\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicador 1985 edition. First published in Italian in 1963. Good condition with light age toning and minor shelf wear.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"bower studio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44572123922515,"sku":null,"price":15.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0689\/0268\/2707\/files\/Yourparagraphtext_97.png?v=1778119301","url":"https:\/\/bowerbooks.com\/products\/marcovaldo-by-italo-calvino","provider":"bower books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}