The Cloven Viscount: Bizarre Magical Realism Fantasy Books for Adults – An Absurdist Classic

Synopsis

Calvino's delightfully absurd and macabre novella about the separate halves of a nobleman split in two by a cannonball and the separate paths they forge, exploring the duality of good and evil. What is the relationship between good and evil? Can both exist at once, or is one the absence of the other? In a battle against the turks, the viscount medardo of terralba is bisected vertically by a cannonball. One half of him returns to his feudal estate and takes up a lavishly evil life. Soon the other, virtuous half appears, determined to love an impossibly good existence.