Surviving a murder attempt generates the clarity, compression and pure celebratory drive of this book's title sequence of fourteen syllabic sonnets.

These form the spinal cord of the entire collection, from which nerve endings reach out into a dizzying range of poetic matter, while retaining the book's essential coherence and integrity and what Maura Dooley calls "Fiona Sampson's incisive, inquisitive, painterly eye".

Fiona Sampson has published ten books, including four collections of poetry, philosophy of language and books on the writing process; she is also the Founder-Editor of Orient Express. She has won many awards, including the Zlaten Prsten of Macedonia, and been translated into more than a dozen languages. She is the Editor of Poetry Review.