Counting on fiction

More myth than mathematics, more satire than science, Italo Calvino’s collection of short stories Numbers in the Dark (Jonathan Cape, £15.99, ISBN 0 224 03732 3) takes a dim view of humanity. Peace is maintained by mutilating and beheading political leaders. Communication is an illusion -everybody has a telephone but no one connects. We’re down to the last dregs of petrol, the Sun is dying and the person charged with recording world history is a liar. Oh, and by the way, evolution was a waste of time, the Neanderthals knew it all anyway. It’s depressing but compulsive reading.