{"product_id":"hard-damage-9781496215703","title":"Hard Damage","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn lyric and documentary poems and essayistic fragments, \u003ci\u003eHard Damage\u003c\/i\u003e charts the intergenerational damage caused by war, environmental loss, and the collective grief of exile.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Aber is not afraid of erudition or the hard labor of crafting poems that peel open in layers; at times, reading her work reminded me of poets who have worked across similarly broad linguistic topographies: Carolyn Forché, Frank Bidart, Paul Celan, Sylvia Plath, Wallace Stevens, and others. But Aber’s work here is hardly derivative of those masters. She is her own poet, her own voice, and her debut is my favorite volume of poetry this year.”—Christian Kiefer, \u003ci\u003eParis Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e“[\u003ci\u003eHard Damage\u003c\/i\u003e] does not consent to the simple narrative or the soundbite. It reminds readers that every displaced person, whether refugee, immigrant, or the child of one, carries with them a parcel of stories, stories that are often suppressed and mutated by the dominant culture, or lost to reductive media coverage. . . . \u003ci\u003eHard Damage\u003c\/i\u003e allows the songs—and the lives that they contain—to unfurl.”—Marie Scarles, \u003ci\u003eRumpus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\"Winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize, Aber's ruminative lyrical debut tracks the movements of a twice-emigrated poet in poems that are personal and confessional.\"—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Aria Aber’s stunning debut is both deeply personal and deeply historical. Examining the effects of western colonialism on Afghanistan and the consequences of decisions dating back to the 1950s, \u003ci\u003eHard Damage \u003c\/i\u003equestions and mourns the idea of citizenship. This collection focuses on stories of displacement, which Aber accomplishes by breaking boundaries, breaking forms, and even breaking language.\"—Anthony Frame, \u003ci\u003eChicago Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eHard Damage\u003c\/i\u003e is an immensely satisfying book. It charts immigrant experience in a way which is highly imaginative but also sustained and controlled. It will be fascinating to read what Aber writes next.\"—Ian Pople, \u003ci\u003eManchester Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eHard Damage\u003c\/i\u003e, in both its masterful depictions of complicity and its unwavering focus on what is true, asks us to consider what we owe each other as people occupying this same, dying, earth.\"—Taneum Bambrick, \u003ci\u003eKenyon Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"To properly review the new collection \u003ci\u003eHard Damage\u003c\/i\u003e . . . you simply want to copy the entire text of the book into your article and just say: \u003ci\u003eRead this. I can add nothing.\u003c\/i\u003e\"—Joe Hoover, \u003ci\u003eAmerica: The Jesuit Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Language is not static in Aber's work—it's malleable. It can be used to tell a story behind\/within a story. . . . There is so much to be fascinated by in this book. So much to reward the reader.\"—daniellejhanson.com\u003cbr\u003e\"Recently, there has been some debate about “Best of” literary lists, whether they are too narrow in their scope or simply biased toward works that have been bestowed with awards, failing to consider the abundance of books that deserves a wider audience. Regardless of where you land in this debate, it’s hard to imagine, as 2019 nears its end, that \u003ci\u003eHard Damage\u003c\/i\u003e won’t be on every one of those lists. It’s an incredible achievement that doesn’t sugarcoat the subjects it tackles, and if there is a book that so thoroughly explores the human condition this year, it is undoubtedly Aber’s, one that will move you as much as it will stir serious discussion with others and, most importantly, with yourself.\"—Esteban Rodriguez, \u003ci\u003ePank\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This is the book I've been trying to press into everyone's hands for two years. It's a breathtaking poetry collection. The poems—about war, God, love, Afghan history, migration, and Rilke—will leave you goose-bumped and weeping.\"—theweek.com\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSource Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e Reading Rilke in Berlin\u003cbr\u003e I.\u003cbr\u003e First Snow\u003cbr\u003e Asylum\u003cbr\u003e Dream with Horse\u003cbr\u003e Family Reunion\u003cbr\u003e Can You Describe Your Years in Prison?\u003cbr\u003e Azalea Azalea\u003cbr\u003e Funeral in Paris\u003cbr\u003e There\u003cbr\u003e Here\u003cbr\u003e How to Pronounce \u003ci\u003eJohn Frusciante\u003c\/i\u003e Correctly\u003cbr\u003e Blessed Are the Rich\u003cbr\u003e Ode to My Hair\u003cbr\u003e Unmotioning\u003cbr\u003e Smells Like Liberty\u003cbr\u003e What Your Life Was Like\u003cbr\u003e II.\u003cbr\u003e Mother of All Balms\u003cbr\u003e Nostalgia Is Not the Right Word\u003cbr\u003e Reading Rilke at Lake Mendota, Wisconsin\u003cbr\u003e Vagabond\u003cbr\u003e Sisterhood\u003cbr\u003e At the Hospital, My Language\u003cbr\u003e I Wake Up Curled Up in a C. D. Wright Poem\u003cbr\u003e The Ownership of Naming Things\u003cbr\u003e Stone\u003cbr\u003e Self-Portrait as Wounded Doe of Artemis\u003cbr\u003e My Father Drives Me to Düsseldorf Airport\u003cbr\u003e Foreign Policies\u003cbr\u003e III.\u003cbr\u003e Rilke and I\u003cbr\u003e ich \/ I\u003cbr\u003e Lass \/ Let\u003cbr\u003e dir \/ You\u003cbr\u003e Alles \/ All\u003cbr\u003e Geschehn \/ Happen\u003cbr\u003e Schönheit \/ Beauty\u003cbr\u003e Und \/ And\u003cbr\u003e Schrecken \/ Terror\u003cbr\u003e IV.\u003cbr\u003e Covert United States Involvement in Regime Change, I\u003cbr\u003e Operation Cyclone\u003cbr\u003e I. Chaos\u003cbr\u003e II. Blue Bottle Fly Condition\u003cbr\u003e III. Hera\u003cbr\u003e IV. Ex Nihilo\u003cbr\u003e V. Hades\u003cbr\u003e VI. Dionysus\u003cbr\u003e VII. Ares\u003cbr\u003e VIII. Cyclopes\u003cbr\u003e IX. Cronus\u003cbr\u003e X. Catalogue of Grief\u003cbr\u003e XI. Interrogation Chamber\u003cbr\u003e Covert United States Involvement in Regime Change, II\u003cbr\u003e Operation Timber Sycamore\u003cbr\u003e V.\u003cbr\u003e The First Toast\u003cbr\u003e Nostos\u003cbr\u003e Fata Morgana, 1987\u003cbr\u003e Meskonsing\u003cbr\u003e Your Whole Life Must Become a Sign and Witness to This Impulse\u003cbr\u003e Operation Cyclone, Years Later\u003cbr\u003e The Only Cab Service of Farmington, Maine\u003cbr\u003e Inventory of Lost Conditionals\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e Notes","brand":"University of Nebraska Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49409227260247,"sku":"9781496215703","price":13.29,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781496215703.jpg?v=1730506039","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/hard-damage-9781496215703","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}