The Pomegranates of Kandahar - Softcover

"She offers precise glimpses of the English countryside, with cool observations of war-torn landscapes and political unrest" (Independent, Christmas books special)

"An original and exciting voice" (John Burnside Scotsman)

"There is so much to love in the wonderful poetry of Sarah Maguire" (Carol Shields)

"Her poems are both voluptuous and concise, maintaining a perfect balance between scientifically exact observation and a world of marvels" (Peter Parker Daily Telegraph)

"[Maguire] writes dark, erotic, complex and lyrical poems which are so richly layered you can almost taste them" (Maura Dooley, editor of Making for Planet Alice: New Women Poets)

Sarah Maguire's rich and lyrical poems have been highly praised for the ease with which they ground precise, sensual detail within the wider context of world events. In this remarkable new collection, her poems travel greater distances than ever before.

The title poem laments the devastation visited upon Afghanistan following decades of war. Other poems consider the casualties of political unrest: would-be migrants in Tangiers gazing northwards at the longed-for phantasmagoria of 'Europe'; and packs of wolves on the loose in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. But there are intimate poems too, often using scientific vocabularies to offset a personal moment, as in 'Landscape, with Dead Sea' where the erosion of the poet's skin is connected to geological transformations at the earth's core.