Cosmicomics

First published in Italian in 1965, Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomics transforms the origins and evolution of the universe into a series of extraordinary tales, narrated by the enigmatic Qfwfq, a being who seems to have witnessed the entire history of existence. Drawing on scientific ideas about the Big Bang, the formation of galaxies, evolution and the emergence of life, Calvino imagines these vast processes as intimate dramas of love, jealousy, rivalry and longing. In one story, the moon comes close enough to be reached by ladder; in another, the earliest forms of life grapple with the bewildering possibility of change. Scientific speculation becomes the starting point for playful, poignant explorations of what it means to be alive.

Combining cosmology with fable, philosophical reflection and an irrepressible sense of humour, Cosmicomics reveals Calvino’s gift for making abstract ideas feel unexpectedly human. Its ingenious premise allows the infinite scale of the universe to illuminate the smallest experiences of desire, memory and loss, while its inventive structures resist the boundaries of conventional realism. The collection occupies a distinctive place in Calvino’s work, bridging his earlier fascination with storytelling and the more formally experimental fiction of his later career. Both intellectually mischievous and quietly moving, it invites readers to look at the history of the cosmos as a story in which imagination is as indispensable as scientific knowledge.

From the book

“At the origin of the universe, there was only hydrogen.”

— Italo Calvino, Cosmicomics