First published 1995
Forché stands amid the wreckage of the twentieth century's darkest moments. War has shattered landscapes and lives. Genocide has erased entire peoples. The atomic bomb has redefined destruction itself. The Holocaust has challenged every assumption about human nature. Memory fractures under the weight of such catastrophes, yet somehow persists. The poet searches for words that can hold what seems impossible to contain. Her lines break apart like the experiences they describe. Images scatter and reform. Language itself becomes a survivor, carrying forward what must not be forgotten. Forché fights to give voice to silence, to make the unspeakable speak. She builds bridges between what was lost and what remains, between the dead and the living. In a world where survival often means forgetting, she insists on remembering.
Genres: history, literary-fiction, 20th-century, poetry, biography-memoir, 21st-century, activism
Vibes: emotional, intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Period: 20th Century, 21st Century
96 pages · Paperback · Harper Perennial
Content warnings: death, violence, war