Vertigo & Ghost

Vertigo & Ghost is a powerful poetry collection that explores themes of violence, sexuality, depression, and family life. It won the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2019 and the Roehampton Prize for Best Poetry Collection 2019. The book is praised for its frankness, brilliance, and devastating poems about vulnerability and rage. It also exposes a disturbing contemporary world where violent acts against women continue to be perpetrated on a daily basis. The second half of the book shifts to an intimate and lyrical document of depression and family life, reclaiming the sanctuary of domestic private life and the right to raise children in peace and safety. The collection is considered important, necessary, impressive in its range and risk, and dramatic in its currency.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 112 pages
Publication date: 03 January 2019
Publisher: Vintage Publishing

This book is a powerful exploration of violence, power, and gender. It begins with a poem about the teenage dawning of sexuality, then quickly moves into a series of graphic and stunning pieces about Zeus, a serial rapist who views women as prey and sex as a weapon. The poems are frank, brilliant, and devastating, revealing the vulnerability and rage of the victims. As Zeus faces personal and historical aggressions, his house comes crumbling down, exposing a disturbing contemporary world in which violent acts against women continue to be perpetrated on a daily, hourly basis.

The book then shifts to an intimate and lyrical document of depression and family life, exploring the complex and ambivalent terrain of early motherhood. It sounds out the anxieties and claustrophobias as well as the gifts of tenderness and love, reclaiming the sanctuary of domestic private life and the right to raise children in peace and safety.

Vertigo & Ghost is an important, necessary book that speaks out with clarity, grace, and bravery against the abuse of power. Its range and risk are hugely impressive, and its currency is dramatic. This collection is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the complexities of gender, power, and violence.

The book has received numerous awards and accolades, including the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2019 and the Roehampton Prize for Best Poetry Collection 2019. It has also been shortlisted for the 2020 Rathbones Folio Prize and the 2019 T. S. Eliot Prize.

Weight: 130g
Dimension: 164 x 131 x 10 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781787330818