Deaf Republic - Softcover

Kaminsky, Ilya

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571351417 ISBN 13: 9780571351411

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2019

Synopsis

BBC Radio 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK
FORWARD PRIZE 2019 SHORTLIST
POETRY BOOK SOCIETY CHOICE 2019

The long-awaited new collection from Ilya Kaminsky: a remarkable parable in poems which asks us, what is silence?

Deaf Republic opens in a time of political unrest in an occupied territory. It is uncertain where we are or when, in what country or during what conflict, but we come to recognise that these events are also happening here, right now. This astonishing parable in poems unfolds episodically like a play, its powerful narrative provoked by a tragic opening scene: when soldiers breaking up a protest kill a deaf boy, the gunshot becomes the last thing the citizens hear - in that moment, all have gone deaf. Inside this silence, their dissent becomes coordinated by sign language. The story then follows the private lives of townspeople encircled by public violence: a newly married couple, Alfonso and Sonya, expecting their child; the daring Momma Galya, instigating the insurgency from her puppet theatre; and Galya's puppeteers, covertly teaching signs by day and by night heroically luring soldiers one by one to their deaths behind the curtain. At once a love story, an elegy, and an urgent plea, Deaf Republic confronts our time's vicious atrocities and our collective silence in the face of them.

About this title

Review:

'Deaf Republic is conscience, terror, silence, rage, made to coexist moments of tenderness, piercing beauty, empathic lyricism.', Tracy K. Smith

'Ilya Kaminsky's Deaf Republic is evidence of a profound imagination, a capacious critical intellect, and a brilliant heart-on-fire . A dream book for any and every citizen.', Li-Young Lee

'A perfectly extraordinary book. It is so romantic, and so painful, with such a stunning lightness of touch but such devastating weight.', Max Porter

'With their intensely humane music, Ilya Kaminsky's poems sing with a real commitment to love, art and memory . He is easily one of the best poets of my generation.', Sandeep Parmar

'A fable of love and war set in an imaginary town called Vasenka . Vasenka has an old-world feel yet - like all great poetry - speaks urgently to the present.' -- Raymond Antrobus, Daily Telegraph 5* review

'An astounding, urgent and fresh creation.' -- Maria Crawford, Financial Times

'[T]his tale of upheaval in an occupied territory speaks to our current political anxieties. But Deaf Republic imaginatively succeeds through its use of deafness as extended metaphor, when voices clamour and truth becomes "fake news". Like the townsfolk he writes about, who invent a sign language as a riposte to atrocity and unrest, Kaminsky's fluid yet fragmented verse drama is a novel response to conflict and miscommunication, hoping for peace rather than "silence, like the bullet that's missed us".' -- Ben Wilkinson, Guardian

Book Description:

Ilya Kaminsky's astonishing parable in poems asks us, What is silence?

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0571351417
• ISBN 13: 9780571351411
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 96