To the River. A Journey Beneath the Surface

Seventy years after Virginia Woolf drowned, English writer and critic Olivia Lang (born 1977) traveled the entire length of the River Ouse in Sussex: from its source to Seaford, where the river flows into the sea. The result of the journey is a deep exploration of the history of these places—from the brutal Baron’s War in the 13th century to the “dinosaur hunters” in the 19th century. Lang recalls Shakespeare, Homer, Iris Murdoch, and Kenneth Grahame, the author of the classic riverbank book “The Wind in the Willows,” and examines the role of rivers in human life, tracing their intricate currents in literature and mythology. Her companion on the journey is Virginia Woolf, making the book also a biography of this unique English writer: a monument to the fluidity of her life and literary process.