Between writing the "Eclogues" and the "Aeneid," the Roman poet Virgil composed the "Georgics," published circa 29 B.C., which deals with rural lives, agriculture and all things bucolic. In the "Inferno," Virgil acted as Dante's guide through the nine circles of hell.
Likewise, Mariko Nagai blends the infernal with the rustic, and the damned with the innocent. These are bleak stories but realistic ones, showing the pain and suffering of people in times of famine, war and repression.
Like Angela Carter, Nagai uses myth as a template for the horrors of existence, as a base to explore the violence of history, and as an arena within which human grace battles suffering.