With this collection of stories by Tommaso Landolfi, drawn from his volumes published in Italy over the last 25 years, New Directions is proud to be able to introduce here one of the most extraordinary writers of our day.

Much admired in Europe, Landolfi has been called "the Italian Kafka"; he is often linked with the Surrealists, and in the intellectual quality of his fantasy there are certain affinities with Borges; but beyond these superficial comparisons, his is a truly unique––and fascinating––art. It is based in a prodigious imagination, a very curious sense of humor and a rare command of irony.

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"The publication of Gogol’s Wife and Other Stories is an occasion for joy, comparable to the belated recent translation and discovery by the English-reading public of Machado de Assis and Jorge Luis Borges." --Susan Sontag

Tommaso Landolfi was a Italian writer and translator. His collection of stories, Gogol’s wife, was cited as a "must read" by Donald Barthelme.