Title In Calabria Series --- Author Peter S. Beagle Illustrator Elizabeth Story Publisher Tachyon Publications - 2017 First Printing Tachyon Publications - 2017 Category Urban Fantasy Warnings None Main Characters Claudio Bianchi Main Elements Unicorns Website ---

Claudio Bianci lives alone on a hillside in idyllic Southern Italy. Set in his ways, Claudio resists modern life and the occasional overture of friendship. He prefers to live simply, working the land and reciting his poetry to his cats, cows and goat.

But one morning, an impossible visitor appears in the vineyard: a breathtaking unicorn with a secret that will turn Claudio's solitary life upside down.

With the unlikely aid of the local postman and his fierce sister, Claudio must stave off unicorn hunters, trespassing tourists, the voracious media, and a monster who calls himself a businessman. As his world becomes increasingly perilous, Claudio must find a way to protect those he has come to love - and to let them love and protect him in return.

Peter S. Beagle's legacy as one of our most beloved storytellers continues with this timely juxtaposition of fantasy and modernity. Lyrical, gripping and wise, In Calabria is a powerful new fable for a complicated time.

I started the year with a unicorn book by Peter S. Beagle, thought it would be good to end the year with another. And it was a good way to end the year as it was a beautiful book, no one describes the unicorn the way Beagle can. Lyrical, magical, and a pleasure to read.

Unlike his more famous The Last Unicorn, we find ourselves in our world, in our time, on a small Italian farm owned by a grumpy old man. He spends his days tending his vegetables and his handful of animals (including Third Cat whose name he had yet to discover, thought that was wonderful how he understood how cat names are tricky), when one day he discovers a unicorn nibbling in his fields. She remains over the winter when it becomes clear she is in foal. Why she is there, we never learn. She doesn't speak, but communicates with Claudio in her own gentle way and changes him over time.

Of course, his farm is small and word gets around a village fast, though he never finds out who told the tale of his unicorn, soon there are news reporters, animal activists and even the mafia wandering his farm, hoping for a glimpse of something that can't possibly exist and yet we all secretly hope it does.

The book is quite short, I read it in a day, but it was a wonderful read and I highly recommend it for anyone who also loves unicorns.