Dino Buzzati

This volume brings together twenty of the best stories written by Dino Buzzati – author of the celebrated novel The Tartar Steppe and one of the most original voices in twentieth-century literature – stories which show the Italian master’s taste for the bizarre and the humorous, and for exploring the darker recesses of the human psyche. From ‘The Collapse of the Baliverna’, where a man is racked with guilt at the thought that he might have been responsible for the loss of many lives, to ‘The Epidemic’, which describes the spread of a “state influenza” contracted only by people who don’t step into line with the government, and ‘Terror at the Scala’, where the higher echelons of Milan society are gripped with the fear of an impending revolution – these stories show how strange and unexpected events can creep into everyday life and draw ordinary people towards mystery, disquiet and, ultimately, catastrophe.

In Catastrophe, the renowned Italian short story writer Dino Buzzati brings vividly to life the slow and quietly terrifying collapse of our known, everyday world. In stories touched by the fantastical and the strange, and filled with humor, irony, and menace, Buzzati illuminates the nightmarish side of our ordinary existence. From "The Epidemic," which traces the gradual effects of a "state influenza" that targets those who disagree with the government, to "The Collapse of Baliverna," where a man puzzles over whether a misstep on his part caused the collapse of a building, to "Seven Floors," which imagines a sanatorium where patients are housed on each floor according to the gravity of their illness and brilliantly highlights the ominous machinations of bureaucracy, Buzzati's surreal, unsettling tales reckon with the struggle that lies beneath everyday interactions, the sometimes perverse workings of human emotions and desires, and, with wit and pathos, describe the small steps we take as individuals and as a society in our march toward catastrophe. With hints of Kafka and Edgar Allan Poe, Catastrophe, published for the first time in the United States, feels as timely today as ever.

Den nyutnevnte løytnant Giovanni Drogo må bryte opp fra hjem, byliv og kjæreste for å adlyde sin beordring til festningen Bastiani, høyt oppe i fjellene mot nord. Tjenesten består i å bevokte en slette, tatarenes ørken, hvorfra det aldri har kommet noe angrep. Men man venter og venter på at tatarene skal vise seg. Romanen ble betraktet som en moderne klassiker allerede da den utkom i 1940, og den har beholdt sin stilling i italiensk litteratur.

På grunn av en stor hungersnød forlater Bjørnens konge og hans undersåtter fjellene og invaderer Sicilia. De vinner kampen mot menneskene og tar over all makt. Bjørnene kopierer menneskenes vaner og uvaner, det går ille og kong Leander må ta affære.