Message from the shadows / Antonio Tabucchi ; translated from Italian by Anne Milano Appel, Martha Cooley, Frances Frenaye, Elizabeth Harris, Tim Parks, Antonio Romani, and Janice M. Thresher.
The reversal game -- Clouds -- Letter from Casablanca -- The Cheshire Cat -- Night, sea, or distance -- Message from the shadows -- The woman from Porto Pim : a story -- Islands -- The translation -- Wanderlust -- The trains that go to madras -- The phrase that follows this is false : the phrase that precedes this is true -- Bucharest hasn't changed a bit -- Little misunderstandings of no importance -- Drip, drop, drippity-drop -- The flying creatures of Fra Angelico -- Against time -- Little Gatsby -- Cinema -- Small blue whales strolling about the Azores -- Yo me enamoreĢ del aire -- Voices -- Postscript : a whale's view of man.
Summary:
"These twenty-three timeless stories in Message from the Shadows sift through Antonio Tabucchi's shadow world. Here, characters step into new dreams with ease, open their mouths to swallow the sky, and idle whales ponder the fragile state of mankind. At times, Tabucchi's world spins toward a single fate: a young boy's lament is said to gather eels to the shore, or a woman in a cotton dress sings, 'I was left with a handful of air' and a young man follows her curious echo. In crackling, tender prose, Tabucchi illuminates the small joys and laments of ordinary people. In these stories, time staggers, straddling the narrow gap between dream and reality. With each brilliant glimpse, we find ourselves examining trees, evening shadows, train journeys, and wrinkled faces of a shared world with fresh eyes"-- Provided by publisher.
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