Kalpa Imperial
The Greatest Empire That Never Was
- Author: Angélica Gorodischer (Argentina)
- Book type: Argentine fantasy novel
- Original: Kalpa Imperial (1983)
- English translation: Ursula K. Le Guin
- Publisher: Penguin Modern Classics
- To be released: July 17, 2026
- Length: 272 pages
- Format: paperback / ebook
- Sizes: 16 x 19,8 x x 13 cm
- Weight: 192 gram
- Prize: £ 10.99 / £ 5.99
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Angélica Gorodischer Kalpa Imperial reviews and information
Kalpa Imperial, The Greatest Empire That Never Was, the fantasy novel from 1983 by Angélica Gorodischer, the author from Argentina, appears in the media, we’ll highlight it on this page.
- Ursula K. Le Guin, whose novel The Left Hand of Darkness is one of science fiction’s finest achievements, has translated a work by the Argentine writer Angelica Gorodischer. Kalpa Imperial recounts the history of an imaginary empire in a series of tales that adopt the voice of a marketplace storyteller. While the point of each tale eludes paraphrase, the cumulative burden is the imperfectibility of human society. Le Guin’s translation, which ranges from blunt to elegant to oracular, seems like the ideal medium for this grim if inescapable message.” (New York Times Book Review)
- “Nabokovian in its accretion of strange and rich detail, making the story seem at once scientific and dreamlike” (Time Out)
Blurb of the Angélica Gorodischer novel
In city squares and golden palaces, a series of storytellers recount the history of the greatest Empire that never was: a history in which orphans rise from the underworld to the throne, mad emperors raze cities, captive dancers induce fatal delirium and murderous empresses plot against their own children.
’s novel, masterfully translated by Ursula K. Le Guin, conjures a vivid fictional universe of labyrinthine cities, desert caravans and the lawless South – and of an Empire fated to rise, fall and rise again.
Angélica Gorodischer was born on July 28, 1928. in Buenos Aires. Altough born in the capital of Argentina, was she was most closely associated with the city of Rosario, her home since childhood and also the home of her famous character, Trafalgar Medrano. She wrote over twenty books, including Trafalgar (1979) and the fantastical Kalpa Imperial (1983-4), which was translated into English by Ursula K. Le Guin. Her work has been compared to that of Borges and Calvino, and she won numerous literary prizes as well as an award for her contribution to women’s rights. In 2011 she received a World Fantasy Award for lifetime achievement.