Ka
Published on 25. July 2019
Book
Paperback/Softback
432 pages
978-0-241-39922-4 (ISBN)
Description
'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
'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
Reviews / Votes
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 *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 195 mm
Width: 126 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
312 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-39922-4 (9780241399224)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
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.