--- product_id: 2329998 title: "Invisible Cities" price: "฿975" currency: THB in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.co.th/products/2329998-invisible-cities store_origin: TH region: Thailand --- # Invisible Cities **Price:** ฿975 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Invisible Cities - **How much does it cost?** ฿975 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.th](https://www.desertcart.co.th/products/2329998-invisible-cities) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Italo Calvino's beloved, intricately crafted philosophical novel about an Emperor's travels—a brilliant journey across far-off places and distant memory. “Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.” In a garden sit the aged Kublai Khan and the young Marco Polo—Mongol emperor and Venetian traveler. Kublai Khan has sensed the end of his empire coming soon. Marco Polo diverts his host with stories of the cities he has seen in his travels around the empire: cities and memory, cities and desire, cities and designs, cities and the dead, cities and the sky, trading cities, hidden cities. As Marco Polo unspools his tales, the emperor detects these fantastic places are more than they appear. Review: magical prose - You past adolescence and enter the world of adult literature. At first, you read anything and everything that found its way to your hands; then, slowly you begin discovering your own, unique literary taste, and you become selective. The more you read, the more selective you become. Your list of favorite authors and genres grows; you find literary voices that speak directly to your soul. By now, you have reached mid age, and you have over two decades of serious reading under your belt. Any new book that you open, any new author that you discover is judged against your favorites, against the voices that stimulated your mind over the years. Words and phrases are judged against those that provided comfort when you felt down; ideas and executions are compared against the benchmarks established over the years. You think you know what you like; you think you know what to expect. Well, perhaps you do. New books come along, and some attempt to quietly sneak in to your consciousness, while others attempt to shatter your world. Most, if not all, pale with your favorites, do not fit with your ideas, or leave you cold. Then, one day, you come across a gently used book. It's small, it looks interesting, and you buy it. That book manages to get under your skin in a very inconspicuous way, without you even noticing. Such was my encounter with Invisible Cities. My first Italo Calvino. He arrived on the heels of Bolaño, Borges, Ungar, and Girondo. Good company, you might say. I say no. Bolaño left me lukewarm—I was expecting more. Borges blew my mind—but only temporarily—he is amazing, but very systematic. Ungar was great—while reading him. Girondo was thought-provoking—entertaining but not mind-altering. Calvino managed to deliver where all of the above failed. He did not force his way to me, he came unsuspected, veiled in beautiful prose. All of the aforementioned authors wrote fine literature, amazing actually. Yet, they were all "in your face" at times. Calvino is like a spy who sneaks in under the cover of darkness. And here comes the strangest part: I haven't even noticed. To be honest, I cannot quite describe what kind of book is Invisible Cities. At first, I thought I knew. Then I thought I did not know, then I thought I knew again, and, in the end, I was reminded that I did not know. The book is simply beautiful. It is irrelevant and relevant at the same time, pointless and necessary at other times, while remaining non-contradictory. Does this make sense? I thought so. To me, Invisible Cities is not a single book, but three separate books. The first one is a wonderful study of humanity. These are the cities that reflect human behavior, the cities that serve as metaphor for greed, anger, vanity, et cetera. The second book is a book of cautionary tales. These are the cities that tell a story, a story of what will happen if we, as humans, do not change our ways. The third book is a book of philosophy. These are the cities as metaphors for mortality, actions and consequences, continuity, faith... To this book also belong the conversations between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan, for these are truly philosophical. Then again, I am probably wrong on all counts. One thing is certain, and that is the undeniable truth that Italo Calvino was an amazing writer. His prose is magical. So now, after more than two decades of reading what I consider to be quality literature, I have to shuffle my mental shelf and make room for Calvino, right next to my all-time favorites where he belongs. Review: Take the tour - This lyrical volume was recommended to me by a Taiwanese friend who is an urban planner. I am grateful, as Invisible Cities is a sublime journey one does not soon forget. Author Italo Calvino relates a series of imagined conversations between the emperor Kublai Kahn and his guest Marco Polo. The emperor has asked to hear about cities the famed traveller has passed through. Each intervening chapter is devoted to a tour of a single city. The emperor already knows not to take his guest’s descriptions too literally. Even so, readers are bound to discover—in these lyrical tours of Octavia, Baucis, Esmeralda, Thekla, Clarice, Despina, Raissa and other cities that defy cartography—more than one scene that feels hauntingly familiar. Calvino invites us to consider the many ways humans live and work together, live off and trade for the resources they need, respond to space and to change, and craft their stories for newcomers and future generations. These travel vignettes gather power as the narrator proceeds. For each community there is the city that exists, the city as it is imagined, and cities in the past that bore the same name in the same spot. The stories accumulate as Kublai Kahn and Marco Polo indulge in a chess game, and the monarch ponders the impossibility of his ever truly knowing all that his own realm contains. Invisible Cities, a book beautifully imagined and written, has now been elegantly formatted for e-book readers. Don’t hesitate. Take the journey. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #11,630 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #15 in Historical Fiction Short Stories (Books) #47 in Metaphysical & Visionary Fiction (Books) #107 in Short Stories Anthologies | | Customer Reviews | 4.3 out of 5 stars 2,734 Reviews | ## Images ![Invisible Cities - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51jUwSaE14L.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ magical prose *by H***N on May 21, 2014* You past adolescence and enter the world of adult literature. At first, you read anything and everything that found its way to your hands; then, slowly you begin discovering your own, unique literary taste, and you become selective. The more you read, the more selective you become. Your list of favorite authors and genres grows; you find literary voices that speak directly to your soul. By now, you have reached mid age, and you have over two decades of serious reading under your belt. Any new book that you open, any new author that you discover is judged against your favorites, against the voices that stimulated your mind over the years. Words and phrases are judged against those that provided comfort when you felt down; ideas and executions are compared against the benchmarks established over the years. You think you know what you like; you think you know what to expect. Well, perhaps you do. New books come along, and some attempt to quietly sneak in to your consciousness, while others attempt to shatter your world. Most, if not all, pale with your favorites, do not fit with your ideas, or leave you cold. Then, one day, you come across a gently used book. It's small, it looks interesting, and you buy it. That book manages to get under your skin in a very inconspicuous way, without you even noticing. Such was my encounter with Invisible Cities. My first Italo Calvino. He arrived on the heels of Bolaño, Borges, Ungar, and Girondo. Good company, you might say. I say no. Bolaño left me lukewarm—I was expecting more. Borges blew my mind—but only temporarily—he is amazing, but very systematic. Ungar was great—while reading him. Girondo was thought-provoking—entertaining but not mind-altering. Calvino managed to deliver where all of the above failed. He did not force his way to me, he came unsuspected, veiled in beautiful prose. All of the aforementioned authors wrote fine literature, amazing actually. Yet, they were all "in your face" at times. Calvino is like a spy who sneaks in under the cover of darkness. And here comes the strangest part: I haven't even noticed. To be honest, I cannot quite describe what kind of book is Invisible Cities. At first, I thought I knew. Then I thought I did not know, then I thought I knew again, and, in the end, I was reminded that I did not know. The book is simply beautiful. It is irrelevant and relevant at the same time, pointless and necessary at other times, while remaining non-contradictory. Does this make sense? I thought so. To me, Invisible Cities is not a single book, but three separate books. The first one is a wonderful study of humanity. These are the cities that reflect human behavior, the cities that serve as metaphor for greed, anger, vanity, et cetera. The second book is a book of cautionary tales. These are the cities that tell a story, a story of what will happen if we, as humans, do not change our ways. The third book is a book of philosophy. These are the cities as metaphors for mortality, actions and consequences, continuity, faith... To this book also belong the conversations between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan, for these are truly philosophical. Then again, I am probably wrong on all counts. One thing is certain, and that is the undeniable truth that Italo Calvino was an amazing writer. His prose is magical. So now, after more than two decades of reading what I consider to be quality literature, I have to shuffle my mental shelf and make room for Calvino, right next to my all-time favorites where he belongs. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Take the tour *by A***T on January 28, 2026* This lyrical volume was recommended to me by a Taiwanese friend who is an urban planner. I am grateful, as Invisible Cities is a sublime journey one does not soon forget. Author Italo Calvino relates a series of imagined conversations between the emperor Kublai Kahn and his guest Marco Polo. The emperor has asked to hear about cities the famed traveller has passed through. Each intervening chapter is devoted to a tour of a single city. The emperor already knows not to take his guest’s descriptions too literally. Even so, readers are bound to discover—in these lyrical tours of Octavia, Baucis, Esmeralda, Thekla, Clarice, Despina, Raissa and other cities that defy cartography—more than one scene that feels hauntingly familiar. Calvino invites us to consider the many ways humans live and work together, live off and trade for the resources they need, respond to space and to change, and craft their stories for newcomers and future generations. These travel vignettes gather power as the narrator proceeds. For each community there is the city that exists, the city as it is imagined, and cities in the past that bore the same name in the same spot. The stories accumulate as Kublai Kahn and Marco Polo indulge in a chess game, and the monarch ponders the impossibility of his ever truly knowing all that his own realm contains. Invisible Cities, a book beautifully imagined and written, has now been elegantly formatted for e-book readers. Don’t hesitate. Take the journey. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Travel Guide to Glorious Places *by C***I on July 27, 2013* This short book, more than anything else, is about the power that words have to evoke a setting, utterly and completely. The cities that Marco Polo describes do not exist, but gosh, you wish they did. This is where Calvino's genius for description, for using just the right word to get across exactly what he wants the reader to take away, really comes through. I wish I could read Italian because I can't help feeling that something must have been lost in translation. This is not because I read a bad translation - I didn't, the language was beautiful - but because I feel like each word was chosen with such care that I would like to read the book in Calvino's chosen language. In a way, I felt like each chapter was a poem. They were all so short - between two and three pages long - and they evoked such a sense of nostalgia for places that do not even exist, and with such a succinct use of words - that they felt very poem-like to me. I read this while traveling, which I think was ideal. As you walk around unfamiliar places, I think you notice things that the locals ignore or don't think about any more, and you are very aware of how the city feels and what its personality is. Calvino takes that feeling to an extreme by making his cities as magical as possible so that you have a sense not just of the physical attributes of the city, but the more nebulous aspects, too - the atmosphere and vibe that are so hard to describe to other people. And each chapter is such a delight. I don't want to ruin the experience of reading something so different for you, but I do want you to get a sense of what is waiting for you. There's one city that exists on a spiderweb. One that is built in men's dreams of chasing a woman. One that has only the plumbing but none of the buildings. One that is built entirely on massive stilts. So many inventive and creative places to visit! This was a different, completely new, kind of treat, and I think if you go into the book knowing that it really is just a series of vignettes that describe cities you wish truly were in our world, then you would really enjoy it. The language is beautiful, and the cities - I wish there were accompanying illustrations for each chapter! ## Frequently Bought Together - Invisible Cities - If On A Winter's Night A Traveler - The Complete Cosmicomics --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.co.th/products/2329998-invisible-cities](https://www.desertcart.co.th/products/2329998-invisible-cities) --- *Product available on Desertcart Thailand* *Store origin: TH* *Last updated: 2026-06-30*