Marcovaldo or The seasons in the city by Italo CalvinoTranslated by William WeaverHarcourt Brace, 1983 (originally Giulio Einaudi Editore, 1963)

Every chapter of this book (the chapters rotate through the seasons, starting with spring and ending in winter) made me smile: each one was just as lovely as the last. Italy in the early ’50s, Italy in the mid ’60s: factory work, a polluted river, kids who ask their father, “Are cows like trams?” Marcovaldo and his family, poor and always getting into trouble but laughing everything off. I can’t explain the joy and wonder of this book, because to describe the stories & their ironies would be to say too much.