Shortlisted for the Guyana Prize, Best Book of Poetry, 2010

From the very first piece in this collection, the title poem “In a Boston Night,” Sasenarine Persaud signals a return to the passionate and sensuous.

Boston, the focal point, is like a needle hole though which the poet deftly threads his reflections about places, events, and histories: a conflict between Anglo- and Franco-Canadians at a Brookline art exhibition; Georgetown and Mumbai; Tampa and Toronto; the “Boston Tea Party” as a symbol of resistance to American English, subtly underlined by the description of a Walcott reading in an overflowing university hall.

This is a fine, multilayered collection of poems by an important and accomplished contemporary poet.

“[Persaud’s] poetry [is] timeless in nature in its discussions of sensuality, love and mourning, but also modern for its interspersion of technology and discussion of contemporary politics. . . refreshingly sensual and realistic.”
–Kavita Ramdia, News India Times

“Each poem, held on the tongue, tastes true–he’s one of those rare poets who gets the recipe of humanness exactly right”
—Canadian Literature

“[A] richly nuanced, multilayered collection of voices”
—Confluence