““Sgambati’s characters are complex and tragic but also beautiful. And his language is precise and evocative.””
There’s a space between what was and what’s next, where memory comforts and disheartens. The varied protagonists in these character-driven stories live in that undertow: the doctoral student stuck in the memory of a brief sexual experience; the woman recognizing her younger self in a photograph, but confused by the crone who stares back at her from a mirror; the widower, more comfortable among strangers than friends because he doesn’t have to apologize for his loneliness — encounters that open the floodgates.
“…gently told, often in multiple voices, each given the space to tell their side of the story until the sometimes sad and often beautiful picture of people connecting as best they can emerges.”
“By turns lyrical, bittersweet, tragic, and celebratory, this is a necessary book that deserves a wide and eager readership.”
“Undertow of Memory will leave you breathless with its subtle beauty and frank, powerful storytelling. Aging, loss, transformation, regrets, all the unspoken underpinnings of life receive a voice in Sgambati’s masterfully poetic prose.”