Watermark

In his newest prose work, Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky weaves a curious, quirky and brilliant account of his enthralment by the physical and metaphysical life of the city of Venice. A mosaic of forty-eight short chapters, each recalling a specific episode from one of his many visits, the narrative meanders, dallies, picks up speed, turns back reflectively on itself, as if to mimic and honour the amphibious spirit of the enchanting city it portrays. Brodsky's remarkable gift for narrative, already manifest in the essays collected in Less Than One, is concentrated here in what amounts to a confessional - at times self-mocking - meditation on the relationship between water and land, light and dark, present and past, stone and flesh, desire and fulfilment, life and death. Brodsky's informative evocations of Venice's architectural and atmospheric character are coupled with flashes of autobiographical disclosure that shed momentary light on his restless, ceaselessly inquiring approach to the world. Funny, frank, immensely knowledgeable, yet never satisfied with what he knows and remembers, Brodsky is impelled as much by wonder and delight in what he sees as by personal experience of time's encroachments. Watermark, a significant addition to a renowned body of work, reveals both the author and his subject as we - readers and travellers - have never seen either before.