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