
'Brilliant poems of complex, haunting power... Averno may be Gluck's masterpiece' The New York Times Book ReviewAn acclaimed collection from the Nobel prize-winning poetThis startlingly original reworking of the Persephone myth takes us to the icy shores of Averno, the crater lake regarded by the ancient Romans as the entrance to the underworld. Here, the consolations of rebirth and renewal are eclipsed by the immediacy of loss - by a mother's possessive grief, an abducted girl's equivocal memories, a farmer's lament for a lost harvest.
This chorus offers neither comfort nor solace but deepened understanding, its sorrow textured by the poet's luminous wit. Together, the poems of Averno swell to a staggeringly powerful lamentation, through which the reader glimpses the ecstasy of the inevitable, only to find it resisted by the insistent, impersonal presence of the Earth.
This chorus offers neither comfort nor solace but deepened understanding, its sorrow textured by the poet's luminous wit. Together, the poems of Averno swell to a staggeringly powerful lamentation, through which the reader glimpses the ecstasy of the inevitable, only to find it resisted by the insistent, impersonal presence of the Earth.
- In stock, ready to ship
- Inventory on the way
We deliver to addresses in the UK only.
Shipments are sent via Royal Mail and you will receive a tracking number as soon as your order is dispatched.
Penguin Books Ltd
2021
Adult Fiction
Poetry and Plays