Description

Book Synopsis

A stunning, intimate collection by the late great Polish poet Adam Zagajewski.

. . . I think I sought wisdom

(without resignation) in poems
and also a certain calm madness.
I found, much later, a moment's joy
and melancholy's dark contentment.


In True Life, the Polish writer Adam Zagajewski, one of the world's most admired and beloved poets, turns his gaze to the past with piercing clarity and a tone of wry, lyrical melancholy. He captures the rhythms of a city street on the page and the steady beat of the passage of time against it (Roads cannot be destroyed // Even if peonies cover them / smelling like eternity) and writes of the endless struggle between stasis and change, between movement and stillness (We knew / it would be the same / as always // It would all go back to normal).

Mary Oliver called Zagajewski the most pertinent, impressive, meaningful poet of our time, and Philip Boehm wrote in The New York Times Book

True Life

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    £19.50

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    RRP £26.00 – you save £6.50 (25%)

    Order before 4pm today for delivery by Tue 30 Jun 2026.

    A Hardback by Adam Zagajewski

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      View other formats and editions of True Life by Adam Zagajewski

      Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc
      Publication Date: 21/02/2023
      ISBN13: 9780374601560, 978-0374601560
      ISBN10: 0374601569

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      A stunning, intimate collection by the late great Polish poet Adam Zagajewski.

      . . . I think I sought wisdom

      (without resignation) in poems
      and also a certain calm madness.
      I found, much later, a moment's joy
      and melancholy's dark contentment.


      In True Life, the Polish writer Adam Zagajewski, one of the world's most admired and beloved poets, turns his gaze to the past with piercing clarity and a tone of wry, lyrical melancholy. He captures the rhythms of a city street on the page and the steady beat of the passage of time against it (Roads cannot be destroyed // Even if peonies cover them / smelling like eternity) and writes of the endless struggle between stasis and change, between movement and stillness (We knew / it would be the same / as always // It would all go back to normal).

      Mary Oliver called Zagajewski the most pertinent, impressive, meaningful poet of our time, and Philip Boehm wrote in The New York Times Book

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