Catastrophe

<p>In <em>Catastrophe</em> 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. </p><p>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. </p><p>With hints of Kafka and Edgar Allan Poe <em>Catastrophe</em> published for the first time in the United States feels as timely today as ever. </p>