- Published: 15 February 2017
- ISBN: 9780701187972
- Imprint: Chatto & Windus
- Format: Trade Paperback
- Pages: 80
- RRP: $29.99
A Herring Famine
- Published: 15 February 2017
- ISBN: 9780701187972
- Imprint: Chatto & Windus
- Format: Trade Paperback
- Pages: 80
- RRP: $29.99
In poems of poised lyricism, the book revealed an obsession with the line between beauty and violence, but also a fear of erasure, finding consolation in poetry’s potential to commemorate and commit to memory… Like Heaney’s, O’Riordan’s best poems reveal an unusually precise attention to the texture, weight and subtle music of language. "Glance from the barrel where the bones are bled", begins "Ghost Ranch". Read those lines of O’Riordan’s aloud and they force your whole mouth into movement, a trick that the Irish master all but perfected, bringing language to life… O’Riordan has a genuine gift.
Ben Wilkinson, Guardian
Adam O'Riordan's poems combine verbal grace with powerful feelings and a keen intelligence that extends from the personal to the political with admirable ease
James Lasdun
Elegant, beautifully-turned poems that match an easy technique with a sophisticated intelligence
Nick Laird
Adam O’Riordan is the real thing
Hugo Williams