STAFF PICK!
To no surprise, Hanif Abdurraqib has written another literary triumph. A master of writing about sadness with a dry wit: 'I was born, and it only got worse from here.' He also skillfully remixes songs to make room for grief: 'hoe he stay faithful / in a room / full of ghosts.' This is the book for both lovers and skeptics of poetry. You want to read this. -- Charlotte
"When an author's unmitigated brilliance shows up on every page, it's tempting to skip a description and just say, Read this Such is the case with this breathlessly powerful, deceptively breezy book of poetry." --Booklist, Starred Review
In his much-anticipated follow-up to The Crown Ain't Worth Much, poet, essayist, biographer, and music critic Hanif Abdurraqib has written a book of poems about how one rebuilds oneself after a heartbreak, the kind that renders them a different version of themselves than the one they knew. It's a book about a mother's death, and admitting that Michael Jordan pushed off, about forgiveness, and how none of the author's black friends wanted to listen to "Don't Stop Believin'." It's about wrestling with histories, personal and shared. Abdurraqib uses touchstones from the world outside--from Marvin Gaye to Nikola Tesla to his neighbor's dogs--to create a mirror, inside of which every angle presents a new possibility.
