100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

Auckland Bookstore open weekends (8:30am - 5pm) for browsing and Pick Ups! πŸŽ‰

The Castle of Crossed Destinies

By Italo Calvino
0.0 (0 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
A group of travellers find themselves unable to speak, stranded first in a castle and then a tavern. Instead of words, they convey their stories through tarot cards, weaving an intricate and surreal tapestry of narratives. This fantastical tale explores the myths and histories interlinking human consciousness in a unique and imaginative way.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK Please add to wishlist to be notified when back in stock

Sorry, we're currently out of stock of The Castle of Crossed Destinies. Please add to your Wishlist and we'll send you an email as soon as it's back in stock.

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Ideal for readers who appreciate experimental fiction, magical realism, and literary works that blend visual art with narrative. Those interested in mythology, surreal storytelling, and layered, thoughtful narratives will find this book particularly compelling.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

A group of travellers chance to meet, first in a castle, then a tavern. Their powers of speech are magically taken from them and instead they have only tarot cards with which to tell their stories. What follows is an exquisite interlinking of narratives, and a fantastic, surreal and chaotic history of all human consciousness.

'A shamelessly original work of art' New York Times

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

A shamelessly original work of art β€” New York Times

A group of travellers chance to meet, first in a castle, then a tavern. Their powers of speech are magically taken from them, and instead, they have only tarot cards with which to tell their stories. What follows is an exquisite interlinking of narratives, and a fantastic, surreal and chaotic history of all human consciousness.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

The Castle of Crossed Destinies is hailed as a shamelessly original work of art, celebrated for its magical storytelling and complex interwoven tales. Critics from The Times and New Yorker highlight Calvino's masterful fusion of visual and verbal elements, crafting a mesmerizing narrative experience that transcends conventional fiction. Gore Vidal praises Calvino's ability to create a fantastic web of prose, setting him apart from his contemporaries.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780099268055

Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 02 October 1997

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Vintage Classics

Contributors:

  • Translated by William Weaver
  • Translated by William Weaver

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 10.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 120g

Pages: 144

Collections

Fiction General Fiction Italo Calvino Literary Fiction Penguin Books

About the Author

Italo Calvino (Author) Italo Calvino was born in Cuba in 1923 and grew up in Italy. He was an essayist and journalist and a member of the editorial staff of Einaudi in Turin. One of the most respected writers of the twentieth century, his best-known works of fiction include Invisible Cities, If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, Marcovaldo and Mr Palomar. In 1973 he won the prestigious Premio Feltrinelli. He died in 1985. A collection of Calvino's posthumous personal writings, The Hermit in Paris, was published in 2003. William Weaver (Translator) William Weaver has translated Umberto Eco, Italo Svevo, Primo Levi, Italo Calvino and Roberto Calasso, among others. He is a professor at Bard College.

Also by Italo Calvino

View all
  • Italian Folktales
    A collection of folktales to transport the reader into a world of adventurers, tricksters, kings, peasants, and saints. Meticulously selected and artfully recreated, the selection of stories in Italian Folktales is vast and ranges geographically from Corsica and Sicily to Venice and the Alps. Calvino is himself clearly captivated by the folkloric imagination and communicates this in what is a...
    By Italo Calvino
    Paperback
    $3600
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
    VINTAGE QUARTERBOUND CLASSICS - Bound to be beautiful A beautiful hardback edition of Calvino's genre-switching masterwork. A book of surprise and adventure but you, the reader, are the hero. You go into a bookshop and buy If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino. You like it. But alas, there is a printer's error in your copy. You...
    By Italo Calvino
    Hardback
    $3600
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Last Comes the Raven
    A captivating, realist collection of Calvino's early stories. These early short stories brim with the beauty of the Italian countryside and seaside, telling tales both sumptuous and unnerving. Calvino's war-torn Italy is vivid, intense, almost hyper-real. A trio of greedy burglars rob a pastry shop, a boy offers a girl presents of toads and insects from the garden, a wealthy...
    By Italo Calvino
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Complete Cosmicomics
    First paperback publication of Italo Calvino's phenomenally funny account of the universe as a cosmic joke. The Complete Cosmicomics enchants with stories about the evolution of the universe, presenting characters fashioned from mathematical formulae and cellular structures. These characters disport themselves among galaxies, experience the solidification of planets, move from aquatic to terrestrial existence, play games with hydrogen atoms, and...
    By Italo Calvino
    Paperback
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Invisible Cities
    'A subtle and beautiful meditation' β€” Sunday Times In Invisible Cities, Marco Polo conjures up cities of magical times for his host, the Chinese ruler Kublai Khan, but gradually it becomes clear that he is actually describing one city β€” Venice. As Gore Vidal wrote, "Of all tasks, describing the contents of a book is the most difficult and in...
    By Italo Calvino
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Marcovaldo
    Marcovaldo is an enchanting collection of stories, both melancholy and funny, about an Italian peasant's struggle to reconcile country habits with urban life. Oblivious to the garish attractions of the town, Marcovaldo is the attentive recorder of natural phenomenon. The reader's heart bleeds for Marcovaldo in his tenacious pursuit of lost domains, but the stories are full of mirth and...
    By Italo Calvino
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Baron in the Trees
    A gorgeous new edition of a playful, romantic fable by one of the twentieth century's master storytellers. 'I can think of no finer writer to have beside me while Italy explodes, Britain burns, while the world ends' Salman Rushdie From the age of twelve, the Baron Cosimo Piovasco di Rondo makes his home among ash, elm, magnolia, plum and almond,...
    By Italo Calvino
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $3500
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Cosmicomics
    Introducing Little Clothbound Classicsβ€”irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino presents twelve enchanting and fantastical stories about the evolution of the universe. This collection, penned by the giant of Italian literature, features charactersβ€”whether human, dinosaur, or molluscβ€”who disport themselves among galaxies, experience the...
    By Italo Calvino
    Hardback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Under the Jaguar Sun
    90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books I went down, I climbed back up into the light of the jaguar sun - into the sea of the green sap of the leaves. The world spun, I plunged down, my throat cut by the knife of the king-priest... The solar energy coursed along dense networks of blood and chlorophyll;...
    By Italo Calvino
    Paperback
    $1799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Collection of Sand
    Calvino's fascinating and cerebral collection of essays celebrating all aspects of the visual, translated for the first time and new to Penguin Modern Classics. Italo Calvino claimed that 'the brain begins in the eye'. The essays collected here display his fascination with the visual universe, in which the things we see tell a truth about the world. With encyclopedic knowledge...
    By Italo Calvino
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Six Memos for the Next Millennium
    A new translation of Calvino's influential last work Italo Calvino was due to deliver the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard in 1985-86, but they were left unfinished at his death. The surviving drafts explore the concepts of Lightness, Quickness, Multiplicity, Exactitude, and Visibility (Constancy was to be the sixth) in serious yet playful essays that reveal Calvino's debt to...
    By Italo Calvino
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Under the Jaguar Sun
    Under the Jaguar Sun, available for the first time in Penguin Modern Classics, takes readers on a mesmerising journey through three distinct tales that explore the senses and their profound connections to human experience. In the first story, a couple embarks on an epicurean journey across Mexico, tantalised by the idea of a particular ingredient that evokes ancient rituals of...
    By Italo Calvino
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

More from General Fiction

View all
  • The Wedding People
    'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people β€” but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...
    By Alison Espach
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Dungeon Crawler Carl
    The apocalypse will be televised! Welcome to the first book in the wildly popular and addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman-now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition! You know what's worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what's worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction...
    By Matt Dinniman
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Pre-order
    Big Little Truths
    Parenting teens is not for the faint of heart but Madeline, Jane and Celeste have been through worse. It's been a decade since the school trivia night that changed their lives forever and now they're living blissfully ordinary suburban lives. But when an anonymous grisly package arrives at the local high school, and a man in a green Volvo is...
    By Liane Moriarty
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    Pre-order
    Out 25 Aug 2026
  • Throne of Glass Box Set (Paperback)
    Enter the realm. Unleash the darkness. Live the legend. Discover the worldwide phenomenon of the #1 New York Times-bestselling Throne of Glass series in this gorgeous 8-book box set! In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Set
    $12400
    Elsewhere:
    $15500
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    The Ballad of Falling Dragons [Special Deluxe edition]
    The No.1 Sunday Times bestselling sensation When the Moon Hatched continues with the second book in The Moonfall Series, The Ballad of Falling Dragons… Raeve’s thirst for vengeance continues to burn, as does her love for Kaan Vaegor – a staunch beacon from a past she’s yet to face. With Rekk’s blood still fresh on her hands, she learns the...
    By Sarah A. Parker
    Hardback
    $5999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Goal
    Welcome to Briar U!Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy!Read The Goal now for the perfect forced proximity romance! She's good at achieving her goals . . . College senior Sabrina James has her whole future planned out: graduate from college, kick...
    By Elle Kennedy
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Red Rising
    The first book in the incredible New York Times bestselling series Darrow is a Helldiver, toiling beneath the surface of Mars. As a member of the Red caste, he performs grueling labor in the belief that his sacrifice will enable future generations to one day inhabit the surface of the Red Planet. The Reds are humankind's lowest caste, living in...
    By Pierce Brown
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Crescent City Paperback Box Set
    A beautiful box set containing all three paperback instalments of the Crescent City series from #1 bestselling global phenomenon Sarah J. Maas. BOUND BY BLOOD. TEMPTED BY DESIRE. UNLEASHED BY DESTINY. Maas has established herself as a fantasy fiction titan - Time Think Game of Thrones meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a drizzle of E.L. James – Telegraph Spiced...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Set
    $5499
    Elsewhere:
    $7000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Project Hail Mary
    Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of The Martian, offers a gripping new adventure in hard science fiction. With endorsement from notable figures such as Barack Obama and a slew of five-star reviews, this novel promises a thrilling and intellectually stimulating journey. Ryland Grace, a lone astronaut, finds himself on a...
    By Andy Weir
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    (4)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Carl's Doomsday Scenario
    Join Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat Princess Donut as they fight fantastical creatures and deadly mobs in the second book in the smash-hit Dungeon Crawler Carl series -now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition Now on the third floor, Carl and Donut have to fight harder than ever. They've already proven that a Coast Guard vet and once-and-forever...
    By Matt Dinniman
    Hardback
    $4699
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Score
    Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession... Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Score now for the perfect friends with benefits romance! He knows how to score, on and off the ice... Allie Hayes is in crisis mode. With graduation looming, she still doesn't have...
    By Elle Kennedy
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Golden Son
    ENDER'S GAME meets THE HUNGER GAMES in this, the second in an extraordinary trilogy from an incredible new voice.'I'm still playing games. This is just the deadliest yet.' Darrow is a rebel forged by tragedy. For years he and his fellow Reds worked the mines, toiling to make the surface of Mars inhabitable. They were, they believed, mankind's last hope....
    By Pierce Brown
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.

General Fiction lists from the team

Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!

The Latest at Book Hero

View all