“Invisible Cities changed the way we read and what is possible in the balance between poetry and prose . . . The book I would choose as pillow and plate, alone on a desert island.” — Jeanette Winterson "Of all tasks, describing the contents of a book is the most difficult and in the case of a marvellous invention like Invisible Cities, perfectly irrelevant." —Gore Vidal, The New York Review of Books. This book tells the story of the emperor, Kublai Khan, who asks the newly arrived Marco Polo to visit his kingdom and bring tales of his travels.“There is still one city of which you never speak,' Kublai Khan says.Marco Polo bowed his head.'Venice,' the Khan saidAnd Polo said: 'Every time I describe a city I am saying something about Venice.”