Deaf Republic

BBC Radio 4 BOOK OF THE WEEKFORWARD PRIZE 2019 SHORTLISTPOETRY BOOK SOCIETY CHOICE 2019The long-awaited new collection from Ilya Kaminsky: a remarkable parable in poems which asks us, what is silence?Deaf Republic opens in a time of political unrest in an occupied territory. It is uncertain where we are or when, in what country or during what conflict, but we come to recognise that these events are also happening here, right now. This astonishing parable in poems unfolds episodically like a play, its powerful narrative provoked by a tragic opening scene: when soldiers breaking up a protest kill a deaf boy, the gunshot becomes the last thing the citizens hear – in that moment, all have gone deaf.