Porcelain - Poem on the Downfall of My City

Porcelain is a book-length cycle of forty-nine poems by Durs Grünbein that mourns the destruction of Dresden in the Allied firebombing of 1945. It is a history, declaration of love, musical fusion, and reflection on the power and limits of poetry. The book is controversial in its portrayal of the Germans as innocent victims and sets itself against the "myth" of the war crime. It contains new images, notes, Grünbeins reflections, and an additional canto, creating an extraordinary act of poetic kintsugi for the fractured remains of Dresdens memory.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 114 pages
Publication date: 06 July 2023
Publisher: Seagull Books London Ltd

Porcelain is a remarkable book-length cycle of forty-nine poems, crafted over a span of more than a decade, that collectively serve as a poignant lament for the city of Dresden, tragically destroyed during the Allied firebombing in February 1945. This literary masterpiece seamlessly blends history, a heartfelt "declaration of love," and a captivating musical fusion of firsthand accounts, family memories, and tales of monuments and relics. Through the prism of biographical enigmas and the intimate connection to the renowned "white gold" porcelain that propelled its prosperity, Porcelain offers profound reflections on the power and limitations of poetry. With its musical, fractured, ironic, and elegiac tone, the book challenges the notion of the Germans as mere innocent victims of a war crime. At the same time, it never loses sight of the horrifying atrocities deliberately inflicted upon an unsuspecting civilian population, nor the profound devastation that continues to loom large in the German collective memory. This edition, published on the seventy-fifth anniversary of the firebombing, presents a remarkable act of poetic kintsugi, adding new images, notes, and Grünbein's own reflections to the fragmented remnants of Dresden's memory.

Weight: 132g
Dimension: 128 x 203 x 7 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781803091372