The majority of the book consists of brief prose poems describing 55 fictitious cities that are narrated by Polo, many of which can be read as commentary on culture, language, time, memory, death, or human experience generally.

These interludes between the two characters are no less poetically constructed than the cities, and form a framing device that plays with the natural complexity of language and stories.

At a 1983 conference held at Columbia University, Calvino himself stated that there is no definite end to Invisible Cities because "this book was made as a polyhedron, and it has conclusions everywhere, written along all of its edges.

The matrix of eleven column themes and fifty-five subchapters (ten rows in chapters 1 and 9, five in all others) shows some interesting properties.

This strict adherence to a mathematical pattern is characteristic of the Oulipo literary group to which Calvino belonged.

[3] Invisible Cities (and in particular the chapters about Isidora, Armilla, and Adelma) is the basis for an opera by composer Christopher Cerrone, first produced by The Industry[4] in October 2013 as an experimental production at Union Station in Los Angeles.

The performance could be heard by about 200 audience members, who wore wireless headphones and were allowed to move through the station at will.