The nonexistent knight & The cloven viscount

This edition pairs two of Calvino's short fantastical novels. In The Cloven Viscount, a nobleman is split in two by a cannonball in a war against the Turks, and his good and bad halves live separate lives in the same land. In The Nonexistent Knight, a suit of white armour with no one inside serves in Charlemagne's army through willpower and faith alone, alongside a hot-headed young recruit. Both are witty, brisk fables about wholeness, identity and duty, told with lightness and irony.