The Shores of Vaikus

In this edgy homage to Estonia, the country of his refugee father's birth, T S Eliot Prizewinner Philip Gross continues to develop the subtle conversation between words and silence that is at the core of his poetry.

At this collection's heart, the shapeshifting prose-poem monologues of this book's central sequence, Evi And The Devil, weave a haunted landscape out of folktale, dark humour, the routine atrocities of history and a vividly present sense of place. The island of Vaikus (one of several words for silence in Estonian) is Estonia condensed, refracted in the dark waters of a bog pool. The voice that speaks with such compelling otherness is a channelling of a culture and a disposition often drowned out in successive occupations by the empires of the day, but always alive, and whispering. The resulting book is both a bold departure and a drawing together of the whole range of a writing life.

Author: Philip Gross
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
Published: 01/14/2025
Pages: 96
Weight: 0.35lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.30w x 0.40d
ISBN: 9781780377179