Calvino at his most Borgesian, perhaps, playfully mythic yet distilling broad complex theory on art and life from simple (here, astronomical) concepts run to distant, unforeseen extents. For instance, in the one I just finished, the eternal protagonist sees a sign placed on a star 100 million light years away reading I SAW YOU, and realizes it refers to an incident in his own life 200 million years before (time for the light to go out and back). Embarrassed to find that actions he'd hoped had been forgotten had been noted, but not wanting to give too much more away in explaining, he places a noncommittal SO WHAT IF YOU DID and waits another 200 million years for a reply. Only the universe is gradually accelerating apart -- what if the distant messager has accelerated beyond the reach of light before he can see this reply? In the meantime, other galaxies have taken note, of the original event or perhaps of either of the signs. I'm finding that I may not really be conveying just how enjoyable these semi-abstract stories -- personal interactions playing out on a cosmic scale -- really are. But they're great.