Book of Stones

Schwartzman Adam

In "The Book of Stones" Adam's Schwartzman explores what it means to live in the new South Africa, to be part of historical processes while sustaining an individual life. The poet returned home in 1999 to live and work in the country he had mythologised and idealised. The poems in this book, written in Uganda, Eritrea, Nigeria and Mali, as well as in South Africa itself, are full of the impact of those experiences. Four groups of poems develop understanding of commitments to love and politics, and to finding a way to remain engaged with history and survive. Above all, the poems evoke with sensuous immediacy the physical and emotional landscapes of Africa.

About the Author

Adam Schwartzman was born in Johannesburg in 1973. At present he is an associate at the Centre for African Studies at the University of Cape Town and works in rural development. Carcanet publish his first two collections of poetry "The Good Life", "The Dirty Life and other stories" (1995) and "Merrie Afrika!" (1997).

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