If All the World and Love Were Young

Stephen Sexton's debut poetry collection, "The Cartographer's Son," is a stunning exploration of memory, grief, and the necessity of the unreal. It was awarded the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the E. M. Forster Award, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, and was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the John Pollard Poetry Prize. The collection is filled with marvels that together create a work of almost miraculous depth and beauty.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 128 pages
Publication date: 29 August 2019
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection


Winner of the E. M. Forster Award


Winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature


Shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize


Shortlisted for the John Pollard Poetry Prize


A Sunday Times, New Statesman, and Telegraph Book of the Year 2019


Every poem in this book is a marvel.


Taken all together, they make up a work of almost miraculous depth and beauty.


Sally Rooney


A poetry debut fit to compare with Seamus Heaney.


This wonderful long poem is up there with the greats.


Sunday Times


When Stephen Sexton was young, video games were a way to slip through the looking glass; to be in two places at once; to be two people at once.


In these poems about the death of his mother, this moving, otherworldly narrative takes us through the levels of Super Mario World, whose flowered landscapes bleed into our world, and ours, strange with loss, bleed into it.


His remarkable debut is a daring exploration of memory, grief, and the necessity of the unreal.

Weight: 118g
Dimension: 129 x 198 x 10 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780141990026