Firstly the verdict: The masterpiece of Italo Calvino. Only Italo Calvino and only he could have conceived it and the execution is all the more excellent. 
 What to say about the book? 
 Is it a novel? Is it an amalgamation of short stories? Is it a treatise ob writing and reading? Is is a reflection on the truth of "story"? Is it a reflection on the reality that is a book? Does it speak of censorship? The book answers every question with a single answer "Yes". And still I have not said everything. 
 Are you a person who boasts of having finished reading many books? Italo would laugh at you and say that you have not yet completed the story that you began in your childhood. 
 Are you a person who searches for and achieves great satisfaction reading the best stories? Italo would laugh at you and pass the comment that the best book is yet to be written. 
 Are you a person who thinks that each story is remembered for its specific and particular ending? Italo would disappoint you saying that any/every story can have only two possible endings and he has undeniable reason. 
 As a reader who is in love with books you would fall in love with Italo Calvino at the close of the book and simultaneously, if you are a male, would be searching for Ludmilla at your side.