The Moon That Turns You Back: Poems
Her brilliance stems from her consistent acknowledgment of helplessness in the face of disaster, using art as a shield and a response to unfathomable despair and to the inability to reverse brutality ... Hala Alyan’s work embodies open eyes and observation and self-awareness; how to make sense through acceptance—that there often isn’t any sense to be made from loss, yet many of us survive.
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If Alyan’s couplets lack the precision and melancholy wit of Shahid’s ghazals, the best of them capture the rich musicality of the form, providing a counterpoint to the sparseness of other poems in the collection ... Though often challenging, the poems of The Moon That Turns You Back are always soulful, a testament to what Alyan has done with wreckage.
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Spellbinding ... Alyan’s poetry draws the reader in through form, including interactive poems styled in a choose-your-own-adventure format ... A bountiful collection of poetry, especially for those interested in diaspora and the complexity of multinationalism.
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