Cruelty Special to Our Species

<p><strong>A piercing debut collection of poems exploring gender race and violence from a sensational new talent</strong></p><p>In her arresting collection urgently relevant for our times poet Emily Jungmin Yoon confronts the histories of sexual violence against women focusing in particular on Korean so-called comfort women women who were forced into sexual labor in Japanese-occupied territories during World War II. </p><p>In wrenching language <em>A Cruelty Special to Our Species</em> unforgettably describes the brutalities of war and the fear and sorrow of those whose lives and bodies were swept up by a colonizing power bringing powerful voice to an oppressed group of people whose histories have often been erased and overlooked. What is a body in a stolen country Yoon asks. What is right in war. </p><p>Moving readers through time space and different cultures and bringing vivid life to the testimonies and confessions of the victims Yoon takes possession of a painful and shameful history even while unearthing moments of rare beauty in acts of resistance and resilience and in the instinct to survive and bear witness. </p>