In a Dark Wood: What Dante Taught Me About Grief Healing and the Mysteries of Love

About this book

In the aftermath of a heartbreaking tragedy a scholar and writer uses Dantes Divine Comedy to shepherd him through the dark wood of grief and mourninga rich and emotionally resonant memoir of suffering hope love and the power of literature to inspire and heal the most devastating loss. Where do we turn when we lose everything? Joseph Luzzi found the answer in the opening of The Divine Comedy: In the middle of our lifes journey I found myself in a dark wood. When Luzzis pregnant wife was in a car accidentand died forty-five minutes after giving birth to their daughter Isabelhe finds himself a widower and first-time father at the same moment. While he grieves and cares for his infant daughter miraculously delivered by caesarean before his wife passed he turns to Dantes Divine Comedy for solace. In a Dark Wood tells the story of how Dante helps the author rebuild his life. He follows the structure of The Divine Comedy recounting the Inferno of his grief the Purgatory of healing and raising Isabel on his own and then Paradise of the rediscovery of love. A Dante scholar Luzzi has devoted his life to teaching and writing about the poet. But until he turned to the epic poem to learn how to resurrect his life he didnt realize how much the poet has given back to him. A meditation on the influence of great art and its power to give us strength in our darkest moments In a Dark Wood opens the door into the mysteries of Dantes epic poem. Beautifully written and flawlessly balanced Luzzis book is a hybrid of heart-rending memoir and critical insight into one of the greatest pieces of literature in all of history. In a Dark Wood draws us into mans descent into hell and back: it is Dantes journey Joseph Luzzis and our very own.