In June Europa Editions will publish Viola Di Grado‘s ‘The Hollow Heart’, translated by Antony Shugaar. In this courageous, inventive, and intelligent novel, Viola di Grado tells the story of a suicide and what follows. She has given voice to an astonishing vision of life after life, portraying the awful longing and sense of loss that plague the dead, together with the solitude provoked by the impossibility of communicating. The afterlife itself is seen as a dark, seething place where one is preyed upon by the cruel and unrelenting elements. ‘The Hollow Heart’ will frighten as it provokes, enlighten as it causes concern. If ever there were a novel that follows Kafka’s prescription for a book to be a axe for the frozen sea within us, it is ‘The Hollow Heart’.
Viola Di Grado will be reading from ‘The Hollow Heart’ on 22nd May at Celebrating International Writers, the event hosted by Lucy Popescu at the Working Men’s College Library in Camden. Viola will join Hassan Abdulrazzak, Irenosen Okojie, Olivier Garbay and Katharine Quarmby for short readings and a glass – or two! – of wine.
More info about the event.