Overview

An extraordinary tale of transformation from the renowned Italian writer, thinker and publisher 'When hunting began, it was not a man who chased an animal. It was a being that chased another being. No one could say with certainty who each of them were.' Connecting Greek and Egyptian myth, the stories of poets, shamans and gods, Roberto Calasso takes us on a spellbinding voyage that traces the beginnings of our detachment from the animal world; from the landmark evolutionary moment in which humans became the hunter rather than the prey. Roaming through time and across cultures - from the Palaeolithic era to Turing's Machine - The Celestial Hunter delves into the crucible of all our stories- the source of human grief, guilt, resilience and redemption with which we have wrestled throughout history.

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9780241296752

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Reviews

Calasso is especially good at describing the characters of myth and legend with a novelist's omniscient authority ... whose flow of associations leaves you feeling not out of your depth, but smarter and better read -- A. E. Stallings * New York Times * Allusive ... dazzlingly eclectic ... The Celestial Hunter is an 'initiation through the book', speculative but capable of changing how you see things -- Dominic Green * Spectator * A poetic, erudite exploration of history, myth and hunting as the first 'art for art's sake' . . . Calasso practises a sort of literary palaeoarchaeology . . . he writes like a poet, not a professor, in glinting, enigmatic nuggets of narrative finely voiced by his translator Richard Dixon * Financial Times * Informed by myth, this damning exploration of man's detachment from the animal world is ninth in a staggeringly learned series -- Stuart Jeffries * Guardian *

"Beguiling, captivating, vital ... Informed by myth, this damning exploration of man's detachment from the animal world is ninth in a staggeringly learned series -- Stuart Jeffries * Guardian * The Celestial Hunter is an ""initiation through the book"", speculative but capable of changing how you see things -- Dominic Green * Spectator * A spellbinding modern magus . . . he writes like a poet, not a professor, in glinting, enigmatic nuggets of narrative. At a moment when atavistic kinds of peril, awe and terror seem close at hand, it feels no great stretch to share Calasso's core belief that ""the gods always return"" -- Boyd Tonkin * Financial Times * Calasso is especially good at describing the characters of myth and legend with a novelist's omniscient authority ... leaves you feeling not out of your depth, but smarter and better read -- A. E. Stallings * New York Times *"

Calasso is especially good at describing the characters of myth and legend with a novelist's omniscient authority ... leaves you feeling not out of your depth, but smarter and better read -- A. E. Stallings * New York Times * A spellbinding modern magus . . . he writes like a poet, not a professor, in glinting, enigmatic nuggets of narrative. At a moment when atavistic kinds of peril, awe and terror seem close at hand, it feels no great stretch to share Calasso's core belief that the gods always return -- Boyd Tonkin * Financial Times * The Celestial Hunter is an initiation through the book , speculative but capable of changing how you see things -- Dominic Green * Spectator * Beguiling, captivating, vital ... Informed by myth, this damning exploration of man's detachment from the animal world is ninth in a staggeringly learned series -- Stuart Jeffries * Guardian *

Author Information

Roberto Calasso was born in Florence in 1941. An author and publisher, he began working at Adelphi Edizioni from its founding in 1962 and continued as director for fifty years. The Book of All Books is the tenth part of a series that began with The Ruin of Kasch and includes the international bestseller The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony as well as Ka, K., Tiepolo Pink, La Folie Baudelaire, Ardor, The Celestial Hunter and The Unnamable Present. He died in Milan in 2021.

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