Vanishing Acts: New and Selected Poems, 1985-2005

by Ranjit Hoskote

Vanishing Acts by Ranjit Hoskoté, winner of the Sahitya Akademi Golden Jubilee Award 2004, brings together some of his best poetry, drawn from his three published collections, along with a substantial body of new poems. While continuing to explore the interplay between the epic, devastating sweep of historical events and an intimate, often vulnerable, self, his new poems dwell on emigrants, fugitives, interpreters, double agents—survivors who walk the fragile border between eternity and transience. Experimenting with a variety of forms—ranging from the canticle to the cycle, the adapted sonnet to the passionate apostrophe—Hoskoté expresses the anxieties and delights of a transitive self that constantly shifts location, and evokes strikingly the worlds that can open up at the edges of memory, identity and language.

Genres: Poetry

247 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2006

Reviews

[Anita Lobo]

Hoskote's poetry strides lithely between uniquely Indian connotations to universal constructs that would resonate with poetry-lovers worldwide.

To quote reviewer Agha Shahid Ali, "Hoskote wants discover language, as one would a new chemical in a lab experiment ..."

Startling gems appear almost matter-of-fact as I read.

I will leave you with just one [and not spoil the surprise a good book yields:]

"...lease a little sea to landlocked lips."

[An]

dive beneath the edge of the desert