The Sugar Mile

(Paperback)

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Description

A series of loosely-connected monologues, combining observations about modern-day America with family reminiscences about wartime London.A topical and accessible collection, The Sugar Mile takes its readers on a journey from wartime London to modern-day America. In a series of monologues, each beautifully drawn and intimate, Glyn Maxwell details the effects and experiences of conflict: the sense of community bounded by a distrust of strangers and foreigners; whole streets razed to the ground; homes lost, possessions misplaced and characters displaced; fears for loved-ones offset by tentative bargains with god; casual encounters given an intense, unreal edge by the context in which they occur; the routine drama and unfamiliar "everydayness" of bombs, blackouts, shelters, temporary accommodation and evacuation... With painstaking clarity and honesty, Maxwell has captured the surrealism of a world under siege-whether WWII or the war on terror declared post 9/11.

Reviews

"Clearly the work of the major poet of his generation, boldly expanding the canvas and means of his art." --James Wood
"Effortlessly delicate storytelling...Maxwell's ear for the music of ordinary human speech is remarkable."
"Gripping . . . triumphant . . . a brilliant and deeply enjoyable book." --Robert Travers
"His formal technique is as strong as ever...and he still excels as a ventriloquist."
"Maxwell is the best dramatic poet now writing in English." --Daily Telegraph
"A book of such effortlessly delicate storytelling that one hardly notices how ambitious a project it actually is." --Jon Mooallem

Author Bio

An established and critically-acclaimed poet, novelist and playwright, Glyn Maxwell has previously won a Somerset Maugham award, received the E M Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and had three collections selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. He's also been shortlisted for the Whitbread, Forward and T S Eliot prizes.