The Book of Trivialities

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(254 253 248 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>In a series of evocative vignettes celebrated Iraqi poet Majed Mujed lyrically traverses the fraught landscapes of beauty longing and resistance in a country at war. </span><em style=background-color: rgba(254 253 248 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>The Book of Trivialities</em><span style=background-color: rgba(254 253 248 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)> originally written in the poet's native Arabic is beautifully rendered into English by award-winning translator Kareem James Abu-Zeid.</span><span style=background-color: rgba(254 253 248 1); color: rgba(117 117 117 1)> </span><span style=background-color: rgba(254 253 248 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>Intricately fusing political and personal histories these powerful lyric verses speak to the universal undying quest for freedom that knows no borders or bounds. A profound powerful sequence of verse from a poet who once lived through the heart of a revolution and now lives for the revolutionary heart of love.A unique bilingual book which reflects the collaborative and creative process of writers and translators working across cultures.</span></p><p></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(254 253 248 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>Praise for <em>The Book of Trivialities</em></strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(254 253 248 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)> </strong></p><p><em style=background-color: rgba(254 253 248 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>'These poems the bittersweet fruit of a malignant place and time belie the lightness of their title by inviting us to remember the immensities behind them - war suffering love and death. Fleeting disconnected they feel like insights jotted on the run between here and there Iraq and Ireland by a man under pressure anxious to leave behind him the gleanings of a life.' - Harry Clifton</em></p><p></p><p><em style=background-color: rgba(254 253 248 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>'In these 25 flashes of insight Majed Mujed searches for light among the darkness and either finds it or is made wiser for looking.' - Rónán Hession</em></p><p></p><p><em style=background-color: rgba(254 253 248 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>'Majed Mujed's The Book of Trivialities is a gem of a book; intimate tender thought-provoking and intricately crafted these aphoristic fragments contain a wisdom and humour that marks them as anything but trivial. These are poems to revisit again and again for their sharp wit and their revelatory power.' - Jessica Traynor</em></p><p></p>