on est au bord de la micro nouvelle... Concision du monde Buzzatinien, un délice. ( )

I prefer his longer works but Buzzati writes a mean short story as well:

"One morning around ten o’clock an immense fist appeared in the sky above the city. Then it slowly unclenched and remained this way, immobile, like an enormous canopy of ruin. It looked like rock, but it was not rock; it looked like flesh but it wasn’t; it even seemed made of cloud, but cloud it was not. It was God, and the end of the world."

I don't know if I've ever read a more intriguing opening to a short story. His stuff reminds me of Calvino, Borges, or maybe a lighter and less surreal Kafka. If the passage above intrigued you or if you're a fan of any of the writers I just mentioned give Buzzati a try and I doubt you'll be disappointed. ( )

I'm rapidly becoming a huge fan of Dino Buzzati's fiction, and Restless Nights is an excellent introduction to his stories in translation. Buzzati's unique outlook has echoes of Jorge Luis Borges, but Buzzati is his own man, and treats his subjects with considerably more compassion and sympathy than characters typically receive at the hands of the more cerebral Borges. Buzzati loves to throw emotional and philosophical conundrums at his protagonists, and the joy of reading his stories arises from the charming and creative resolutions that he devises for his challenging plots. Most of these pieces are quite short, but as with Borges, they are so well executed that there is no need for excess verbiage - Buzzati has tuned his stories perfectly, and delivers the goods elegantly, entertainingly, and (one might even say) ecstatically. ( )

Masterpiece of short fiction. Compare to HC Andersen or Borges. ( )