Italo Calvino is a sublime writer. One of my favourites is his short story Love Far From Home -- it's funny, poignant and strangely reassuring. Salman Rushdie does an excellent reading in the New Yorker's fiction podcast:
I also would hesitate to recommend IOAWNAT to your average reader, despite thoroughly enjoying it myself. You have to have a certain patience for literary tricks to really enjoy it.
https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/fiction/salman-rushdie-rea...