A Fabulous Empire

[bibliogramma]

Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire that Never Was, Angélica Gorodischer
trans. by Ursula K. LeGuin

Argentinean writer Angélica Gorodischer's collection of 11 meandering tales of the history, cities and people of an immeasurably vast and ancient empire, Kalpa Imperial is, I am informed by various reviewers, considered to be a fantasy classic in the Spanish-speaking world. Originally published in Spanish in 1983, it is the first of Gorodischer's books to be translated into English. I really hope we see more English translations soon, hopefully by someone so admirably suited to handle such material as Ursula K. LeGuin (whose marvellous novel, Always Coming home, displays more than a few stylistic, thematic and structural similarities to Gorodischer's book).

These tales are beautiful, wonderful, fabulous (and fabulist). They wind and wander through the vast landscape of history and geography, all the while grounded by the tiny but eloquent details of the lives and deaths of everyday people, from beggars to emperors. They give the sense of being, all at once, intimate narratives and archetypal legends, naive stories and universal wisdoms.

If you are, as I am, an admirer of the work of Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino, then you will find much to admire in Kalpa Imperial as well.