Atlantic Kelley Swain Atlantic is a work of startling clarity and precision. Atlantic explores the ebb and flow of contrasts, shifting between Old England and New England, death and life, grief and lust. The poet moves from Rhode Island to London and time divides between two continents as she supports grandparents at the end of their lives, whilst making a place for herself in a new world.
What the Horses Heard Rebecca Gethin In 1912 a life of rearing horses on a Dartmoor farm is soon to be torn apart by war, and Orion, who has sworn an oath never to use a gun, finds himself refused exemption from military service and imprisoned. Meanwhile, his sister Cass, rejected by her fiancé’s family because of her brother’s conscientious objection, applies to work in a Remount Depot, from where horses are transported to the Front. Flouting convention and disguised as a soldier, Cass travels to France with two of the horses, where her experiences threaten to break her. When peace returns, the threads of life are gradually taken up. Orion returns from a post-war work in Eastern Europe to signs of hope in Dartmoor, but for Cass, who has lost contact with Captain Meehan, the only person who can vouch for the truth of her story, the outlook is less secure and after so much trauma, will she ever be able to reconstruct a life? Exquisitely observed, this highly charged and affecting novel takes us on an epic journey with larger than life characters and animals that experienced extraordinary brutality during a devastating war, along the way asserting the importance of individual stories against a backdrop of loss on an enormous scale. Humane, poignant and gripping, What the Horses Heard is must-read novel for the centenary of World War I.
Cinnamon Press » Paperback » £8.99 » 9781909077218 » B Format 80pp » Fiction (FA)
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Kelley Swain was born in Rhode Island, 1985. She is the author of Darwin’s Microscope (Flambard Press, 2009), Opera di Cera ( Valley Press, 2014), editor of The Rules of Form: Sonnets and Slide Rules (Whipple Museum, 2012) and Pocket Horizon (with Don Paterson: Valley Press, 2013). She is a freelance writer and educator in poetry, science, and the Medical Humanities. She lives in London. Find her on Twitter @thenakedmuse.
Cinnamon Press » Paperback » £7.99 9781909077232 » 216x140mm » 80pp Poetry (DCF)