Kalpa Imperial : The Greatest Empire That Never Was

Author: Angelica Gorodischer

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 16 July 2026 by Penguin Books Ltd (Penguin Classics) in the United Kingdom as part of 'the Penguin Modern Classics' series.

Paperback | 272 pages
129 x 198 x 18 | 202g

A dazzling tapestry of myth, fantasy and folk tale from Argentina's great writer of speculative fiction, in a translation by Ursula K. Le GuinIn city squares and glittering palaces, a series of storytellers recount the many deaths and rebirths of the greatest Empire that never was: a history in which beggars rise to the Golden Throne, mad emperors raze cities and murderous empresses plot against their own children. Angélica Gorodischer’s dreamlike novel, masterfully translated by Ursula K. Le Guin, conjures a labyrinthine fictional universe of magical lore, broken dynasties and an Empire fated to rise, fall and rise again.

‘A landmark of Spanish-language imaginative fiction: a lyrical work that reimagines fantasy and myth from one of Argentina’s most brilliant writers’ Mariana Enriquez, author of Our Share of Night