The Pomegranates of Kandahar
  • Published: 15 June 2007
  • ISBN: 9780701181314
  • Imprint: Chatto & Windus
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 80
  • RRP: $27.99

The Pomegranates of Kandahar

Formats & editions
EBook
4 Jan 2011
Tr. Paperback
15 Jun 2007
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A Poetry Book Society Choice and a brave, intelligent collection from the highly praised Sarah Maguire.

Sarah Maguire's rich and lyrical poems have been highly praised for the ease with which they ground precise, sensual detail within the wider context of world events. In this remarkable new collection, her poems travel greater distances than ever before.

The title poem laments the devastation visited upon Afghanistan following decades of war. Other poems consider the casualties of political unrest: would-be migrants in Tangiers gazing northwards at the longed-for phantasmagoria of 'Europe'; and packs of wolves on the loose in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. But there are intimate poems too, often using scientific vocabularies to offset a personal moment, as in 'Landscape, with Dead Sea' where the erosion of the poet's skin is connected to geological transformations at the earth's core.
  • Published: 15 June 2007
  • ISBN: 9780701181314
  • Imprint: Chatto & Windus
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 80
  • RRP: $27.99
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About the author

Sarah Maguire

Born in west London, where she lived all her life, Sarah Maguire left school early to train as a gardener. The author of four highly praised poetry collections, she was the editor of Flora Poetica: The Chatto Book of Botanical Verse. The first writer to be sent to Palestine and Yemen by the British Council, she was the founder and director of the Poetry Translation Centre, an organisation that aims to enhance English poetry by engaging with the rich poetic traditions of the UK’s recent immigrant communities. Sarah Maguire died in 2017.

Also by Sarah Maguire

Almost the Equinox
Flora Poetica
The Invisible Mender
See all

Praise for The Pomegranates of Kandahar

She offers precise glimpses of the English countryside, with cool observations of war-torn landscapes and political unrest

Independent, Christmas books special

An original and exciting voice

John Burnside, Scotsman

There is so much to love in the wonderful poetry of Sarah Maguire

Carol Shields

Her poems are both voluptuous and concise, maintaining a perfect balance between scientifically exact observation and a world of marvels

Peter Parker, Daily Telegraph

[Maguire] writes dark, erotic, complex and lyrical poems which are so richly layered you can almost taste them

Maura Dooley, editor of Making for Planet Alice: New Women Poets
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