Author Joseph Luzzi suffered a tragedy most people wouldn’t even dream of. On a cold November morning, he found himself racing to the hospital. His wife, 8-1/2 months pregnant, had been in a horrible car accident. In one terrible instant, Luzzi found himself both a widower and a first-time father. Few would have done the same as Luzzi. He turned to Dante for solace.
The Bard professor and Tivoli resident analyzed his actions this way. “I realized I had to let the person I was, or at least a part of him, die along with Katherine, and then I had to build a new life. What happened to Dante, you see, was that in the midst of his greatest defeat, he created something beautiful, something he would never have been able to create if he’d stayed in Florence: he wrote The Divine Comedy.
Listen to Luzzi as he discusses his book, In a Dark Wood, with WAMC Northeast Public Radio’s Joe Donahue on The Book Show. Thursday, June 16 at 8:30pm. Tune your radio to 90.3FM.
You can also see Luzzi live at the Community Room on Saturday, June 25 at 4pm. The author will read from his book and sign copies – available for purchase. There is no admission charge.
“Joseph Luzzi lived through something terrible, and has made something beautiful. In a Dark Wood is a memoir of love and loss; but more than that, it is a powerful testimony to the consolation –even salvation- that an engagement with great literature can supply.” – Rebecca Mead, author of My Life in Middlemarch
“Luzzi honestly grapples with profound questions about being a man and father in this very literary and very personal work.” – Publishers Weekly