‘CITY is an important title for me, because it expresses what this book has always been in my head. A city. No particular city. An impression of a city rather. Its skeleton. I thought of the stories I had in mind as if they were neighbourhoods. And I imagined characters as if they were streets…The characters – the streets – are many. There is a barber who on Thursdays cuts hair for no charge, there is a giant, and a mute. There is a boy called Gould, and a girl called Shatzy Shell. There are professors, people who play football, a black kid who plays basketball and never fails to score, and there’s also a general.’ Alessandro Baricco