Outside the Joy

By: Ruth Awad

Write A Review

Paperback | 3 September 2024

At a Glance

Paperback
96 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
20.3 x 12.7 x 0.64

Paperback

RRP $32.99

$32.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $8.19 with

or

Ships in 5 to 10 business days

Outside the Joy is filled with poems that sear with lyric clarity about grief, love, survival, and wonder amid personal loss and environmental collapse. Tracing losses both interpersonal and universal - from a mother's failing heart to environmental and economic decline ravaging ancestral homelands - OUTSIDE THE JOY is a compendium of abundance in a world rife with want. With a voice as singular as it is illuminating, Awad explores the sharp contrasts of our shared existence: the human capacity to hurt and to hold one another, the love and grief that grow from our ephemeral connectedness. These poems unearth the sacred in the ordinary and invite you to do the same - "if only / you'll let the world / soften you with its touching."

" What a gift to be haunted by these words." --Maggie Smith, New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful

Industry Reviews

"Just a few stanzas into Outside the Joy, you find yourself leaning toward the page, breathing just a little slower than before as you inhale Ruth Awad's music. This is a book you hold on to for dear life. Thankfully, each of these poems is here to hold you in return." --Saeed Jones, author of Alive at the End of the World
"Part ode, part elegy, part protection spell, Ruth Awad's Outside the Joy holds at its radiant heart precarity itself. These poems inventory the losses, the mercies, and the small miracles in this life that is not ours for long. An unforgettable book by one of our best contemporary poets. What a gift to be haunted by these words." --Maggie Smith, author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful"There is a beautiful use of sensual language in Outside the Joy, and there is wisdom. What a terrific, memorable voice. These poems are not just well made--they are one of a kind." --Ilya Kaminsky, author Deaf Republic

"In addition to macro themes, Awad exerts a lot of micro pressure on language to extract multiple meanings: Imaginary, the value of the pound' with the quite disparate associations, 'pound' as currency and 'pound' as heart or fist... The common connotations of words are interrogated and seen anew. Look at how the word'abundance' is used: 'America and its incongruent abundance: fields of corn and the hungry in the streets.' Awad's creative pressure on language makes us look at the world's injustices in terms of the haves and have nots and how the language we have to use is both guilty and impotent to rectify the inequality." --Sally Bliumis, author of Echolocation.

Shipping

	Standard Shipping	Express Shipping
Metro postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Regional postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Rural postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95

Orders over $79.00 qualify for free shipping.

How to return your order

At Booktopia, we offer hassle-free returns in accordance with our returns policy. If you wish to return an item, please get in touch with Booktopia Customer Care.

Additional postage charges may be applicable.