# T zero

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{{Short description|1967 collection of short stories by Italo Calvino}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{More citations needed|date=October 2011}}
{{Only primary sources|date=April 2026}}
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{{infobox book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject Books -->
| name          = t zero
| italic title  = no
| title_orig    = Ti con zero
| translator    = [William Weaver](/source/William_Weaver)
| image         = File:TiConZero.jpg
| caption       = First edition
| author        = [Italo Calvino](/source/Italo_Calvino)
| illustrator   = 
| cover_artist  = 
| country       = Italy
| language      = [Italian](/source/Italian_language)
| series        = 
| genre         = [Science fiction](/source/Science_fiction)
| publisher     = [Giulio Einaudi](/source/Giulio_Einaudi)
| release_date  = 1967
| english_release_date = 1969
| media_type    = Print
| pages         = 164
| isbn          = 
| dewey         = 
| congress      = 
| oclc          = 
}}
{{Lowercase title|italic=yes}}
'''''t zero''''' (original title:  '''''Ti con zero''''') is a 1967 collection of short stories by Italian author [Italo Calvino](/source/Italo_Calvino). The title story is based on a particularly uncertain moment in the life of a lion hunter.  This second in time, ''t<sub>0</sub>'', is considered by the hunter against known previous seconds (''t<sub>−1</sub>'', ''t<sub>−2</sub>'', ...) and hypothetical future seconds (''t<sub>1</sub>'', ''t<sub>2</sub>'', ...)

"[Qfwfq](/source/Qfwfq)" (an always extant being introduced in ''[Cosmicomics](/source/Cosmicomics)'') narrates the first set of stories in the collection, each of which takes a scientific fact and builds a story around it.  Other stories in the book diverge to a greater or lesser degree from this scientific theme.  The collection is divided into three sections. The first, ''"Other Qfwfqs"'', contains four stories continuing the Cosmicomics tradition, including tales about the formation of the moon, the origin of birds, and the primordial sea. The second section, ''"Priscilla"'', consists of three stories — "Mitosis", "Meiosis", and "Death" — which explore biochemical and evolutionary themes through the recurring figure of an unattainable woman named Priscilla. The third section, ''"t zero''", gives the book its name and includes the title story, a story set in a motorway chase, and the final postmodern reworking of ''The Count of Monte Cristo''.<ref>https://www.enotes.com/topics/italo-calvino/criticism/calvino-italo/francis-cromphout-essay-date-1989</ref> The final story in the collection is a [postmodern](/source/postmodern_literature) [pastiche](/source/pastiche) of Alexandre Dumas' ''[The Count of Monte Cristo](/source/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo)''.

The book was also published in English with the title ''Time and the Hunter'' in 1970.

All of the stories in ''t zero'', together with those from ''Cosmicomics'' and other sources, are now available in a single volume collection, ''[The Complete Cosmicomics](/source/The_Complete_Cosmicomics)'' (Penguin UK, [2009](/source/2009_in_literature)).

== References ==
{{Reflist}}
{{wikiquote|Italo Calvino}}
* Italo Calvino. ''t zero'' (Translated from Italian by [William Weaver](/source/William_Weaver)).  New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1969. {{ISBN|0-15-692400-5}}

{{Italo Calvino}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1967 short story collections
Category:Short story collections by Italo Calvino
Category:Science fiction short story collections
Category:Einaudi books

{{1960s-sf-story-collection-stub}}

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