Livia, Or Buried Alive — Lawrence Durrell

Description

Livia, or Buried Alive is the second novel in Lawrence Durrell’s Avignon Quintet — an ambitious, layered cycle exploring love, memory, politics, and metaphysics on the brink of World War II.

In this volume, two sisters, Livia and Constance, follow very different paths through a Europe gripped by rising fascism and impending war. Both women, intellectuals and romantics in their own right, navigate worlds of scholarship, forbidden philosophy, and complex love affairs. But as alliances shift and loyalties are tested, their bond fractures, mirroring the turmoil engulfing Europe itself.

Written in Durrell’s lush, introspective prose, Livia delves into the nature of desire, memory, and the slippery boundary between reality and illusion — continuing the philosophical and emotional inquiries begun in Monsieur. A fascinating meditation on the human heart amid the sweep of history.