Sweet Shop

Arising from visits to sweet shops in the by-lanes of Calcutta these poems brim with the excitement of what it means to discover marvel at and taste the universe. As the first line of the book states 'The whole universe is here'. Showcasing the edible the intimate and the singular this collection like the sweet-shop shelf is characterized by 'an unnoticed balance of gravity and play'. 'Chaudhuri's experiments in poetic alchemy turn sweet nothings into ontological reflections. These odes to the pleasures of faltu-the unnecessary - are pungent chewy and succulent.' -Charles Bernstein'The lexical vitality magically achieved through words which are mostly new to us is a perfect lyrical representation of the sweetness and elegiac bitterness of life.' -Bernard O'Donoghue About the Author Amit Chaudhuri is the author of seven novels including most recently Friend of My Youth as well as a work of non-fiction Calcutta and collections of short stories poetry essays and a critical study of D. H. Lawrence's poetry. He has received the Commonwealth Writers Prize the Betty Trask Award the Encore Prize the LA Times Book Prize and the Sahitya Akademi Award among other accolades. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.Chaudhuri is Professor of Contemporary Literature at the University of East Anglia and Professor of Creative Writing at Ashoka University. Alongside this he is an admired singer in the North Indian classical tradition and a composer and performer in a celebrated project that brings together the raga blues and jazz with a variety of other musical traditions. He received the Sangeet Samman from the government of West Bengal. Chaudhuri is regularly featured on radio and TV; his version of 'Summertime' was featured on the BBC 4 documentary Gershwin's Summertime: the Song that Conquered the World.