Night Letters : A Journey Through Switzerland and Italy

by Robert Dessaix

• ISBN13: 9780312199395
• ISBN10: 0312199392
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1999-01-15
• Publisher: Picador

Summary

For twenty nights in a hotel room in Venice, a traveler, recently diagnosed with an incurable illness, writes a letter home to a friend. He describes the kaleidoscopic journey he has just made across northern Italy from Switzerland, while reflecting on questions of mortality, seduction, and the search for paradise. Against a rich background of earlier journeys in literature, notably Mann'sDeath in Venice, Robert Dessaix creates a compelling and ultimately uplifting account of a life enriched by a heightened sense of mortality.

Author Biography

Robert Dessaix is an essayist, translator, and literary commentator. He has edited Australian Gay and Lesbian Writing: An Antholgy, and is the author of A Mother's Disgrace. He lives in Melbourne, Australia.

Table of Contents

"With its brio and intelligence, its marveling awareness of the wonders of our world and its sharpened sense of our own ephemeral place among them, Night Letters is a luminous gem."--Michael Upchurch, San Francisco Chronicle