Combining resonant narrative and imagery with powerful formal concentration, this collection of verse includes poems inspired by the poet's Belfast childhood, the contemporary Middle East, and Greek and Latin sources such as Pindar and Virgil. Together the poems build into a moving, complex meditation on loss, both personal and historical.

Peter McDonald is the award-winning author of the poetry collections Adam's Dream and Pastorals and the critical studies Mistaken Identities and Serious Poetry: Form and Authority from Yeats to Hill.