A young, eighteenth-century Italian nobleman defies parental authority by adopting an exclusively arboreal life, watching from his perch in the trees the passing of the Enlightenment and participating in its various delights and duties

From the age of twelve, the Baron Cosimo Piovasco di Rondo makes his home among ash, elm, magnolia, plum and almond, living up in the trees. He walks through paths made from the twisted branches of olive, makes his bed in a holly oak, bathes in a fountain constructed from poplar bark. An aerial library holds the books with which he educates himself in philosophy and mathematics. Suspended among the leaves, the Baron adventures with bandits and pirates, conducts a passionate love affair, and watches the Age of Enlightenment pass by beneath him.

'The most magically ingenious of the contemporary Italian novelists'
- The Times

'I can think of no finer writer to have beside me while Italy explodes, Britain burns, while the world ends'
- Salman Rushdie

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Italo Calvino was born in Cuba in 1923 to Italian parents and grew up in Italy. After serving in the resistance during World War II, he studied literature in Turin. Except for his first book, published in 1947, all his novels are magical realist; a unique blend of fantasy, scientific curiosity, and metaphysical speculation is the hallmark of his oeuvre. Calvino is one of the most important post-war Italian writers. Behind his pure pleasure in storytelling and experiments with the novel form lies a deep commitment. Calvino died in 1985.