The Distance of a Shout: Selected Poems

taken across fifty years

'My life always stops for a new book by Michael Ondaatje' JHUMPA LAHIRI

'Each new book of Michael Ondaatje’s is a literary event, but that is particularly true for his books of poetry' TERRANCE HAYES

The poetry of Michael Ondaatje begins in memory: distant landscapes, myths from childhood, fleeting interactions with loved ones, and characters from history itself. In poems that are spare as often as they are fable-like - as tender as they are heart-wrenching - the poet navigates the past, looks toward the future, and unearths inevitable truths about the world.

Assembling Michael Ondaatje’s finest poems in one brilliant volume, The Distance of a Shout chronicles the poet’s journey - moving book to book, moment to moment, border to border - and leads the reader through the threshold of discovery itself. The Distance of a Shout is a profound and gorgeous collection by an indispensable poet of our time, and proof of why miraculous poetry endures.