Averno, a collection of poetry by Louise Gluck that draws its name from a mythological Roman site conceived as an underworld portal, serves as an extended metaphor for the inescapable and haunting aspects of the mortal condition. This landscape, forever locked in the harsh grasp of winter, embodies a place of paradoxical movement, permitting passage between realms while denying their unity. The poems, elegiac and tumultuous, weave a tapestry of loss, defiance, and stark beauty, leading their audience through an internal pilgrimage without the promise of resolution or hope.