Overview
Translated from the Arabic and introduced by Fady Joudah, You Can Be the Last Leaf draws on two decades of work to present the transcendent and timely US debut of Palestinian poet Maya Abu Al-Hayyat.
Art. Garlic. Taxis. Sleepy soldiers at checkpoints. The smell of trash on a winter street, before āour wild rosebush, neglected / by the gate, / blooms.ā Lovers who donāt return, the possibility that you yourself might not return. Making beds. Cleaning up vomit. Reading recipes. In You Can Be the Last Leaf, these are the ordinary and profoundāsometimes tragic, sometimes dreamy, sometimes almost frivolousāmoments of life under Israeli occupation.
Here, private and public domains are inseparable. Desire, loss, and violence permeate the walls of the home, the borders of the mind. And yet that mind is full of its own fierce and funny voice, its own preoccupations and strangenesses. āIt matters to me,ā writes Abu Al-Hayyat, āwhat youāre thinking now / as you coerce your kids to sleep / in the middle of shellingā: whether itās coming up with āplans / to solve the worldās problems,ā plans that āeliminate longing from stories, remove exhaustion from groans,ā or dreaming āof a war / thatās got no war in it,ā or proclaiming that āI donāt believe in survival.ā
In You Can Be the Last Leaf, Abu Al-Hayyat has created a richly textured portrait of Palestinian interiorityāat once wry and romantic, worried and tenacious, and always singing itself.
This book title, You Can Be the Last Leaf (Selected Poems), ISBN: 9781571315403, by Maya Abu Al-Hayyat, Fady Joudah, published by Milkweed Editions (May 10, 2022) is available in paperback. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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