Dreams of the Return

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Lavishly illustrated with his own photos Alan Bern's DREAMS OF THE RETURN captures the beauty of Italy especially the South accompanied by classic poetry presented in its original Italian and in English-translated by the author. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(64 64 64 1)>In DREAMS OF THE RETURN author/photographer Alan Bern turns his lens to Italy-in particular the South-bringing to life landscapes both storied and luminous through his own photographs and through classic Italian poetry delivered both in its original form and in his own translations. The journey is lyrical immersive: it's not merely a travel guide but a portrait of longing place memory and beauty.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>This poetic and visual odyssey will transport the reader to a land steeped in history and romance. Travel well with this guidebook for the mind heart and spirit. To be savored alongside pizza margherita and red wine with a sweet finish of roccoco napoletani and a robust espresso infused with Sambuca.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>[Bern's] writings are diverse blending Italian and English language as they pepper philosophical and geographic atmosphere with dialogues that reinforce changing places and perspectives. </span></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Midwest Book Review</strong></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>A haunting bilingual assemblage of Italian glimpses in the mind of an American... a page turner read with the pleasure of having no idea what will come next.</span></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Peter Dale Scott author of Dreamcraft</strong></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Gorgeous collection. The word transcendent comes to mind. The images and the text flow so well together.</span></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Virginia Watts author of Echoes from the Hocker House</strong></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Bern is a modern Jewish man living in Berkeley California but the drive towards understanding brings him to ancient Italy to Catholicism to the poetry of Dante to the very language Dante spoke. Here translation is not so much revelation of the other as it is revelation of the self in another guise.</span></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Jack Foley poet and critic author of Collisions</strong></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>How lucky for Bern to have had his Italy; how lucky for us that we have his memory of Italy in this lovely book.</span></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Steven Rood author of Music Behind a Stone Wall</strong></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>I finished the book transported wanting to return to Italy myself-to revisit the passion and complexity of a country that Bern captures with such tender devotion.</span></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Carol Jenkins Painter</strong></p>