Mandelstam Variations

This book, by the outstanding English poet, uses the poetic mode to tell the story of Osip Mandelstam, the Russian poet crushed by Stalin. By dove-tailing over forty poems into an overall fictional address, Morley creates his own interpretation of Mandelstam’s mind recreate life and death in a totalitarian state – a recreation of the man who, in the face of Soviet orthodoxy, interrogations, and intermittent jail sentences, wrote compelling poetry until his death upon deportation in 1938.

“David Morley is sympathetic for his readiness to deal with large matters … an unmistakable integrity.” —Times Literary Supplement

Poetry * 6 x 9 inches • 75 pages • 9781550960846