Joseph Luzzi is a Bard professor of Italian and a Dante scholar. He has devoted his life to teaching and writing about Italy – past and present, including the poet. But he hadn’t truly understood the depth of Dante’s epic poem until he was confronted with death and grief in his own life.
He suffered a tragedy most people wouldn’t even dream of. On a cold November morning, he learned that his wife, 8-1/2 months pregnant, had been in a fatal car accident. In one terrible instant, Luzzi found himself both a widower and a first-time father. Ultimately, he turned to his compatriot, author of The Divine Comedy, for comfort.
On Saturday, June 25, this award winning author will be reading and signing his book in the Community Room of the Hudson Area Library, 51 North 5th Street, Hudson, beginning at 4pm. Refreshments will follow the event and it is free and open to all.
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 Dante’s epic poem. Beautifully written and flawlessly balanced, Luzzi’s book is a hybrid of heart-rending memoir and critical insight into one of the best regarded pieces of literature in history.
“Luzzi’s story is intensely personal, but holds universal appeal for anyone who has experienced love and loss,” says a Booklist review. “As he grasps blindly for routes out of his personal underworld, both he and the reader discover that only a change of mind and heart can open the way to love and fulfillment.”