Cosmicomics

Cosmicomics is a collection of short stories by Italian writer Italo Calvino, first published in 1965 as Le cosmicomiche. The book compiles tales that narrate cosmic history and scientific ideas through fantastical reminiscences of Qfwfq, a gregarious, nearly immortal narrator who has lived from the earliest moments of the universe. Each story reimagines a moment in the life of the cosmos—from the Big Bang and the creation of matter to the formation of galaxies, the emergence of life, and the passage of time—by presenting it as a human-scaled anecdote or fable. The prose blends precise scientific imagery with playful invention, wordplay, and inventive metaphor, often using a first-person voice to render complex concepts accessible and exploratory rather than didactic.

The collection is the first in Calvino's series of Cosmicomics, a set of similarly inventive fictions that fuse literary whimsy with scientific curiosity. The stories are largely self-contained, though linked by the recurring presence of Qfwfq and a cosmological frame that traverses episodes across space and time. The work is noted for its imaginative approach to science, its lyrical style, and its influence on later intersections between literature and science.

It has been translated into many languages and remains a landmark of 20th-century Italian literature and of Calvino's experimental mode, bridging science fiction and literary fiction with a playful, philosophical sensibility.