In the Clutches of Love
While reading “In the Clutches of Love” (Në kthetrat e dashurisë) (FOSCA – It. Ed.) by Iginio Ugo Tarchetti, I was struck by how deeply emotional, unsettling, and psychologically intense the story is. It’s not a traditional romance—it’s a gothic, raw portrayal of love tangled with obsession, vulnerability, and madness. That tension is what I wanted to capture in the cover.
A dark, emotional story of obsessive love inspired a cover that feels intimate yet unsettling. The rose and hands echo the novel’s tension—beautiful, fragile, and quietly haunting.
The novel dives into a relationship that slowly unravels identity and reason, where love feels more like affliction than salvation. That emotional conflict guided my visual choices: the intimate, almost claustrophobic hands; the red rose—delicate yet ominous—placed where the heart should be; and the dark atmosphere surrounding the figures. Everything is meant to reflect the fragility of desire and the weight of emotional entanglement.This cover wasn’t designed to look “romantic” in the usual sense—it was meant to feel like the story itself: beautiful, but also uncomfortable; intimate, but haunted. A love story, yes—but one that leaves scars.
