Calvino himself bears some resemblance to Marana (since in this novel, Calvino falsely “translates” his own words into fragments of work by other authors). On the one hand, there are reasons to be skeptical of Marana’s claims about the insignificance of an author’s name on the cover, particularly since Calvino, the real author of this book, is literally a character in the book, and since the opening chapter explores all of the expectations a reader might have for a book by the author Calvino.