Publisher's Synopsis
Part of the highly-accomplished second generation of postwar Irish writers that have gone on to achieve international prominence, Sweeney has come to signify a very different Irish sensibility. Looking east towards Germany and central Europe for his models, he unifys these with a passion for surreal narrative and jet black humour.
Often driven by sinister, filmic scenarios and a powerful visual imagination, Sweeney's lyric power grows from strength to strength. In this new selection, featuring a number of hitherto uncollected poems, including some very early work, we see a wilder, more disparate and disruptive poet capable of tremendous poignancy, elegance and musicality.
