Book Review: Hell’s Gate by Laurent Gaude

“We no longer believe in anything. And in order not to depress ourselves we call that progress.”

Oddly, this one was a slow start for me, but I’m so glad I stuck with it… The opening is rather banal – and then suddenly quite horrifying (I have a toddler) – and as I had not read the blurb recently, and couldn’t recall precisely what the book was about, I was having a hard time getting invested in the story as a result. Then I went back online to check the blurb – and knew I’d have to keep reading. I’m immensely glad I did. The book was a glorious tale of love and faith and the lengths we will go to for our families – both the ones we are born to/with and the ones we make. Giuliana and Matteo suffer more than any people should have to – and keep suffering long after one would expect the capacity of human suffering to allow… But ultimately they are each saved through their own, individual, brand of faith and it allows each of them to achieve their own, individual, form of redemption.

I certainly didn’t take any comfort in Gaude’s vision of the afterlife – this is not the fluffy clouds of Renaissance heaven or the choose-your-own-adventure of Matheson’s What Dreams May Come… This is a brutal and harsh vision of What Comes Next, with no differentiation between the good, the bad, or the indifferent. It is also not a morality tale of any conventional format – there is no visible post-death reward for being good (or even innocently blameless), no punishment for evil, there is just a devastating wearing down. The redemption that comes in this novel is hard-won – it is not a reward for good behavior, but rather a result of painstaking effort and an unflagging faith. And maybe that IS, ultimately, the moral of the tale…

‘But where is it?” asked Matteo, a new curiosity in his voice.
‘Where is what?’
‘Death.’
‘All around you,’ was the reply. ‘In every dark recess and corner. Under every stone laid here millennia ago. In the dust that flies and in the cold that grips us. It is everywhere.’

This is not a story for the faint of heart – there is devastation here, a scorching of the earth that leaves very few people standing through most of the tale… But in the end, love will out – even when it doesn’t look the way we thought or hoped it would. All in all, it was quite a beautifully moving tale – difficult to read but worth the effort.

Hell’s Gate will be available May 10. My review copy was provided via NetGalley.