Description

Book Synopsis

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE T.S. ELIOT PRIZE 2021**

*A FINANCIAL TIMES 'BOOKS OF 2021' PICK*

Ransom, the new collection from Michael Symmons Roberts, is an intense and vivid exploration of liberty and limit, of what it means to be alive, and searches for the possibility of hope in a fallen, wounded world. The poems in Ransom display all the lyrical beauty and metaphysical ambition for which his work is acclaimed, but with a new urgency, a ragged edge to what the Independent described as his 'dazzling elegance'. At the heart of this new book are three powerful sequences - one set in occupied Paris, one an elegy for his father, and one a meditation on gratitude - that work at the edges of belief and doubt, both mystical and philosophical. The idea of 'ransom' is turned and turned again, poem by poem, seen through the lenses of personal grief and loss, cinematic scenes of kidnap and release, narratives of incarnation and atonement. This is a profound and timely book from one of our finest poets.



Trade Review
Wonderfully atmospheric. -- Tristram Fane Saunders * Daily Telegraph *

Ransom

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    A Paperback / softback by Michael Symmons Roberts

    £9.50

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    Order before 4pm tomorrow for delivery by Tue 29 Sep 2026.

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      Book details

      Publisher Vintage Publishing
      Published 18 March 2021
      ISBN-13 9781787333123
      978-1787333123
      ISBN-10 1787333124
      Also in:
      Poetry

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      **SHORTLISTED FOR THE T.S. ELIOT PRIZE 2021**

      *A FINANCIAL TIMES 'BOOKS OF 2021' PICK*

      Ransom      , the new collection from Michael Symmons Roberts, is an intense and vivid exploration of liberty and limit, of what it means to be alive, and searches for the possibility of hope in a fallen, wounded world. The poems in Ransom display all the lyrical beauty and metaphysical ambition for which his work is acclaimed, but with a new urgency, a ragged edge to what the Independent described as his 'dazzling elegance'. At the heart of this new book are three powerful sequences - one set in occupied Paris, one an elegy for his father, and one a meditation on gratitude - that work at the edges of belief and doubt, both mystical and philosophical. The idea of 'ransom' is turned and turned again, poem by poem, seen through the lenses of personal grief and loss, cinematic scenes of kidnap and release, narratives of incarnation and atonement. This is a profound and timely book from one of our finest poets.



      Trade Review
      Wonderfully atmospheric. -- Tristram Fane Saunders * Daily Telegraph *

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