Stories by Dino Buzzati. They are connected not so much plot-wise as conceptually. They are compared with the works of Borges and Cortazar. Kafka, Edgar Poe and Ambrose Bierce. They balance on the verge of magical and mystical realism, parables, literary fairy tales and even intellectual fiction. The style of these pearls of “small prose” is spare, laconic and seemingly indifferent, but it is thanks to this technique that Buzzati will succeed emphasize the unusual nature of the plots and evoke a powerful – often on the verge of shock – emotional response in the reader.