Reading an Italo Calvino novel includes stepping out of the world as we know it. Invisible Cities, the Italian writer’s take on Marco Polo’s travels in Asia, is no different. Calvino’s vignettes of various cities are wildly imaginative, blurring the line between metaphor and reality. In the city of Zirma, a girl takes a walk with a puma on a leash; Armilla, where there are no walls, ceilings or floors, only water pipes that end in taps and showers; Leonia, where citizens use brand new household items every day, doing away with the previous day’s commodities in the morning; each

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