Book Review – Hell’s Gate by Laurent Gaudé, trans. by Jane Aitken & Emily Boyce

About the Book

When his son is killed by gangsters’ crossfire on his way to school, Neapolitan taxi driver Matteo is consumed by despair.

But just when he feels life has lost all meaning, he encounters a man who claims the living can find ways into the afterlife. And legend says that there’s an entrance to the underworld beneath Naples.

What if Matteo had a chance of bringing Pippo back from the dead?

Format: ebook (272 pages) Publisher: Gallic Books
Publication date: 4th May 2017 Genre: Fantasy

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My Review

This is a strangely unnerving little book, blending a story of loss and vengeance with elements of magical realism and questions about the nature of life and death.  Gaudé powerfully depicts the impact on Matteo and his wife, Guiliana, of their son’s death; how despair “stalked them constantly, surprising them at moments they least expected” with revenge becoming “the only form their love could take”.

However, their emotional responses become markedly different. Matteo is consumed by guilt, constantly reliving the day his son was shot and wondering about “the minute microscopic changes that could have altered the course of events”.  Guiliana’s response is implacable anger – at the man who killed their son, at the sympathy of friends and relatives, even at God for allowing it to happen – becoming like some avenging angel or heroine of Greek tragedy.  

Her challenge, “Bring me my son, Matteo. Bring him back to me” sees Matteo embark on a Dantesque journey in the company of four companions in pursuit of the idea that life and death are not distinct states but that portals exist to allow travel between the two. Gaudé’s depiction of this journey blends elements of a Miltonic view of Hell with the mythology of the Greek underworld but is recounted as if it is real leaving the reader to wonder if the subsequent events should be accepted as fact or as a manifestation of intense grief. A thought provoking read that I admired rather than loved.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of Gallic Books via NetGalley.

In three words: Imaginative, emotional, thought-provoking

About the Author

Laurent Gaudé is a French novelist and playwright.  He studied theatre and has written many dramatic works. In 2002, he was shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt for The Mort du Roi Tsongor, winning it two years later for his novel, Le Soleil des Scorta. Since 2008, he has been working regularly with contemporary composers for whom he writes texts or opera librettos. He is also the author of two collections of short stories, Dans la nuit Mozambique and Les Oliviers du Négus. (Photo/bio: Author website)

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