Inferno, by Alan Cohen

Inferno unfolds between 1984 and 1986, primarily in Holyoke, Chicopee, and Amherst, Massachusetts, with excursions to Springfield, Vermont, New York City, Hawaii, 19th-century France, and 12th-century Spain. At its center is Nancey Reese, a nurse whose coming-of-age takes her from a state of youthful naïveté through a period of tumultuous growth to the threshold of early maturity. Along the way, we learn with her—about her work, her friends, her romantic entanglements, her joys, and her frustrations.

While grounded in bracingly realistic fiction and rich with atmosphere, Inferno also explores more literary and poetic terrain. The narrative is shaped by three shifting narrators—distinct yet interconnected—who appear in various guises, interact, and evolve. Together, they reflect a fragmented but ultimately coherent self, suggesting the layered complexity of identity and the challenges inherent in telling one’s story.

Disrupting the core narrative are science and fantasy chapters that add unexpected texture—complicating and deepening the central arc. What emerges is a cross-genre meditation on selfhood, transformation, and the porous boundaries between realism and imagination. The novel closes not with certainty, but with tension, threat, and the glimmer of promise.