"There is a cyclone fence between ourselves and the slaughter and behind it we hover in a calm protected world like netted fish, exactly like netted fish.
It is either the beginning or the end
of the world, and the choice is ourselves
or nothing."*
This slim volume sends one gliding from the civil unrest of 1970s El Salvador to the steely Eastern Europe of the Cold War and into the forever-troubled pulse of all modernity. Author Carolyn Forche blends the personal and political into something deeper - more fecund - with its ability to sear into one's mind a lyrical mixture of the beautiful and horrible. Gathering this world together without seam, The Country Between Us reflects back to us that which is most difficult to view - the mire and complexity of our society - and alters it into that which cannot be turned away from. The sensual language on display in these poems never oversteps the dramatic narratives unfolding from real experiences and remembrances. The resulting realization that everything within happened - the causal and cruel violent acts, the striking injustices, the moments of pure and transcendent glory - does not soon abate. This is a collection to be read again and again to relive its undeniable power to bear witness and change.
*excerpt from the collection
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