William Collins
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First published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2015
First published in the United States by Harper Wave in 2015
Copyright © Joseph Luzzi 2015
Joseph Luzzi asserts his moral right to
be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library
In a Dark Wood is a work of nonfiction. Some names and identifying details have been changed.
Cover design by Robin Bilardello
Cover photograph © Sheldon Serkin/EyeEm/Getty Images
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Source ISBN: 9780008100667
Ebook Edition © June 2015 ISBN: 9780008100643
Version: 2016-05-17
For Isabel
l’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle
Every grief story is a love story.
Contents
CHAPTER 1 An Hour with the Angels
CHAPTER 5 The Gears of Justice
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita, mi ritrovai per una selva oscura.
In the middle of our life’s journey, I found myself in a dark wood.”
So begins one of the most celebrated and challenging poems ever written, Dante’s Divine Comedy, a fourteen-thousand-line epic about the soul’s journey through the afterlife. The tension between the pronouns says it all: although the “I” belongs to Dante, who died in 1321, his journey is also part of “our life.” We will all find ourselves in a dark wood one day, the lines suggest.
For me that day came eight years ago, on November 29, 2007, a morning just like any other. I left my home in upstate New York at eight thirty a.m. and drove to nearby Bard College, where I am a professor of Italian. It was cold and wet, the air barely creased by the gray light. After my first class ended, I walked to my office to gather materials and then made my way to a ten thirty a.m. class.
I was joking with my students as we all settled in, when I noticed something unusual out of the corner of my eye: there was a security guard standing at the door.
“Look, they’re coming to arrest me,” I said, laughing. But the beefy security guard was not smiling.
“Are you Professor Luzzi?”
I’ve done nothing wrong, was my first thought.
“Yes—why?”
“Please come with me.”
I edged outside the classroom and saw the associate dean and vice president of the college racing up the stairwell. I started running too, down the stairs and out of the building. There was a security van waiting for me.
Joe, your wife’s had a terrible accident.
The words came from somewhere close, but they sounded muffled, as though passing through dimensions. Time and space