Under the Jaguar Sun

Translated by William Weaver.

With a Note by Esther Calvino.

‘The pleasure of these stories is intense’ Sunday Telegraph.

A couple on an epicurean journey across Mexico are excited by the idea of a particular ingredient, suggested by ancient rituals of human sacrifice. Precariously balanced on his throne, a king is able only to listen to the sounds around him – sure that any deviation from their normal progression would mean the uprising of the conspirators that surround him. And three different men search desperately for the beguiling scents of lost women, from a Count visiting Madame Odile’s perfumery, to a London drummer stepping over spent, naked bodies.

In these stories of taste, hearing and smell, Calvino is dazzling, unnerving and brilliant.

‘Each story . . . discloses marvels in regions we presumed exhausted’ Time.