"Alessandra Bava's They Talk About Death, the Italian poet and translator's American publishing debut, is a visually stunning piece of art. The book is handmade, ribbon-bound, and is crafted with brightly colored and textured paper. Erin Wells' cover art, "Yellow Carousel Horse," marches lockstep with the content of the collection, resembling, in skull form, a mash-up of Sylvia Plath's portrait and the horse her greatest work is named for, Ariel."
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"They Talk About Death also takes risks in that it may seem to glorify suicide in lines like, "Suicidal Light demands worship" from "Our Lady of Napalm," a violent re-imagining of Anne Sexton. This worship, which gestures back to the old trope of a woman's beauty being perfected in death, dates to Hamlet's Ophelia and even further. The book borrows from history in this way, and is merciless at times in its treatment of subjects; while in mourning, the author simultaneously praises and curses figures for dying at their own hands. Salome is cited as an example of a woman who is a murderer rather than a victim and Bava praises her for it: "One day, when [John's] head will turn to skull, she'll make a lamp of it for her own enlightenment and write chiaroscuro poems."
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