Italo Calvino 
Adam, One Afternoon 

An acclaimed collection of enchanting, comic and clever tales from the Italian master This collection of playful, deadly febles is populated with waifs and strays, a gluttonous thief and a mischievous gardener. The grimly comic story The Argentine Ant moved Gore Vidal to declare 'if this is not a masterpiece of twentieth-century prose writing, I cannot think of anything better’.