Kalpa Imperial

A dazzling tapestry of myth, fantasy and folk tale from Argentina's great writer of speculative fiction, in a translation by Ursula K. Le Guin

In city squares and golden palaces, a series of storytellers recount the history of the greatest Empire that never was- a history in which orphans rise from the underworld to the throne, mad emperors raze cities, captive dancers induce fatal delirium and murderous empresses plot against their own children.

Angelica Gorodischer's novel, masterfully translated by Ursula K. Le Guin, conjures a vivid fictional universe of labyrinthine cities, desert caravans and the lawless South - and of an Empire fated to rise, fall and rise again.