El vizconde demediado

The Cloven Viscount is Italo Calvino's first foray into the fantastical. It tells the story of the Viscount of Terralba, who was split in two by a Turkish cannonball and whose two halves continued to live separately. A symbol of the divided human condition, Medardo of Terralba goes for a walk through his lands. As he passes, the pears hanging from the trees all appear split in half. "Every encounter between two beings in the world is a tearing apart," the Viscount's evil half tells the woman he has fallen in love with. But is it truly the evil half?