El vizconde demediado

The Demediated Viscount is Italo Calvino's first foray into the fabulous. It tells the story of the Viscount of Terralba, who was cut in two by a cannon shot from the Turks and whose two halves continued to live separately. Symbol of the divided human condition, Medardo de Terralba goes out to walk through his lands. As he passes by, the pears hanging from the trees appear all cut in half. "Every meeting of two beings in the world is a tearing apart", the Viscount's bad half tells the woman with whom he has fallen in love. But are you sure it's the bad half?