THE GATE OF HELL by Laurent GAUDÉ

THE GATE OF HELL by Laurent GAUDÉ – Éditions Actes Sud: (Le Méjan Place Nina-Berberova, Arles) - 2008 - 267 pages – Paperback. After a shooting in Naples, Matteo sees his entire reason for being collapse. His little boy is dead. His wife, Giuliana, disappears. He sinks into solitude and, night after night, for no reason, drives his empty taxi through the streets of the city. But one evening, he lets a strange passenger into his car who, in payment for her fare, offers him a drink in a tiny café. There, Matteo meets the owner, Garibaldo, the impenitent priest don Mazerotti, and above all Professor Provolone, a colorful character, as erudite as he is scandalous, who gives strange speeches about the reality of Hell. And who claims that one can descend there… Those who die take a bit of our life with them to the Afterlife, and we despair of recovering it, both for them and to ease our pain. It is in the awareness of all the bereavements – his and ours – that Laurent Gaudé opposes death with one of the strongest myths in human history. Solar and shadowy, captivating and breathless, his new novel takes us on a “journey” where time and destiny are diverted by the will to tear a being from nothingness.