THE DROWNED BOOK – SEAN OBRIEN-HELEN DUNMORE

With an introduction by Helen Dunmore Come for a walk down the river road, For though you re all a long time dead The waters part to let us pass The way we d go on summer nights In the times we were children And thought we were lovers. The Drowned Book is a work of memory, commemoration and loss, dominated by elegies for those the author has loved and admired. Sean O Brien s exquisite collection is powerfully affecting, sad and often deeply funny; but it is also a dramatically compelling book – disquieting, even – and full of warnings. As the book unfolds, O Brien s verse occupies an increasingly dark, subterranean territory – where the waters are rising, threatening to overwhelm and ruin the world above. Winner of both the T. S. Eliot and Forward prizes, The Drowned Book is an extraordinary collection, a classic from one of the leading poets of our time.