'To read Ka is to experience a giddy invasion of stories - brilliant, enigmatic, troubling, outrageous, erotic, beautiful' The New York Times

'Who?' - or 'ka' - is the question that runs through Roberto Calasso's retelling of the stories of the minds and gods of India; the primordial question that continues to haunt human existence. From the Rigveda to the Upanishads, the Mahabharata to the life of Buddha, this book delves into the corpus of classical Sanskrit literature to re-imagine the ancient Indian myths and how they resonate through space and time.

'The very best book about Hindu mythology that anyone has ever written' Wendy Doniger

'Dazzling, complex, utterly original ... Ka is his masterpiece' Sunday Times

A remarkable retelling of Hindu mythology, from one of Europe's greatest literary figures.

About the Author
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.

Reviews
If you want a dazzling, complex, erotic and utterly original European novel of ideas, Calasso is your man, and Ka his masterpiece * Sunday Times *
To read Ka is to experience a giddy invasion of stories - brilliant, enigmatic, troubling, outrageous, erotic, beautiful ... these stories are superbly narrated -- Sunil Khilnani * New York Times Book Review *
Passage[s] of such ecstatic insight and cross-cultural synthesis-simply, of such beauty * The New York Review of Books *
The very best book about Hindu mythology that anyone has ever written ... A magnificent reading of Hindu texts. Its power arises in part through strong, vivid writing and in part through stunning, unexpected metaphors -- Wendy Doniger * The New Republic *
Magnificent ... A moving, exhilarating, extraordinary book ... An astonishing synthesis of myths and legends, philosophical inquiry, and speculative narrative -- Shashi Tharoor * Washington Post Book World *
A scintillatingly challenging book ... Its opening sentences are as startling as any in all of literature -- Thomas McGonigle * Los Angeles Times *
All is spectacle and delight, and tiny mirrors reflecting human foibles are set into the weave, turning this retelling into the stuff of literature ... Calasso's erudition and his capacity for invention appear to be limitless * The New Yorker *



Book Information
ISBN 9780241399224
Author Roberto Calasso
Format Paperback
Page Count 432
Imprint Penguin Classics
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 300g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 128mm * 34mm