Book excerpt: Using Dante’s Inferno to draw out the reality behind the fantasy, author Kim Paffenroth tells the true events… During his lost wanderings, Dante came upon an infestation of the living dead. The unspeakable acts he witnessed —cannibalism, live burnings, evisceration, crucifixion, and dozens more—became the basis of all the horrors described in Inferno. At last, the real story can be told.