Elly's Reviews > Averno

3.5 stars in my opinion.
First book of the year and it is poetry, for once.

A new author, as well, which is shameful for me to admit, given she's a famous awarded writer.

Averno is a small crater lake in southern Italy, regarded by the ancient Romans as the entrance to the underworld. A unique place where even little birds did not want to rest their wings.
This atmospheric feeling of unknown disillusionment, longing for something unreachable is vividly portrayed by Glück writing style, always precise and poignant.
Through her words, you feel the snow touching the earth, the wind blowing, you can even hear the light footsteps of Persephone furrowing the ground.
Depicted as the innocent creature she surely was in mythology, Persephone has no face. Glück switches narrator (first person, third person) quite often. Persephone could be everyone and no one at the same time.

So many great passages I'll keep in my heart forever.

There is a moment after you move your eye away
when you forget where you are
because you’ve been living, it seems,
somewhere else, in the silence of the night sky.