Kaveh Akbar Pilgrim Bell Paperback Book

AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021Selected as one of TIMEs 100 MustRead Books of 2021Profound and singular, smart and sad and funny. . . We need Pilgrim Bell. TOMMY ORANGEWith formal virtuosity and ruthless precision, Kaveh Akbars second collection takes its readers on a spiritual journey of disavowal, fiercely attendant to the presence of divinity where artifacts of self and belonging have been shed. How does one recover from addiction without destroying the selfasaddict? And if living justly in a nation that would see them erased is, too, a kind of selfdestruction, what does one do with the bodys question, "what now shall I repair?" Here, Akbar responds with prayer as an act of devotion to dissonance the infinite void of a loved ones absence, the indulgence of austerity, making a life as a Muslim in an Islamophobic nation teasing the sacred out of silence and stillness. Richly crafted and generous, Pilgrim Bells linguistic rigour is tuned to the register of this moment and any moment. As the swinging soul crashes into its limits, against the atrocities of the American empire, and through a profoundly human capacity for cruelty and grace, these brilliant poems dare to exist in the empty space where song lives resonant, revelatory, and holy. America, I warn you, if you invite me into your homeI will linger, kissing my beloveds frankly, pulling up radishesand capping all your pens. There are no good kings, only burning palaces. from The PalaceVery few living writers write so... | Kaveh Akbar Pilgrim Bell Paperback Book