A Man's House Catches Fire

What to do when everything goes up in flames? Summon up Tom Sastrys poems, with all their elegant, satirical and hurt-quenching here are nightmares and fairytales, museums full of regret, misenchantments and magic for dark times. Whilst the accelerants of complicity and violence seep from these exacting poems, Sastrys wit and stoicism slake the bonfire of modern troubles. They defiantly ask why do the great marquees of England stand empty? How old is your heart? Why arent we listening to the sea, and what it has to say? Funny, marvellously frank and often courageous, A Mans House Catches Fire urges us to take a long hard look into the flames and avert the disasters of the heart, home and nations that threaten to befall us all. This much anticipated debut collection by poet Tom Sastry follows on from his pamphlet Complicity, selected by Carol Ann Duffy for the Poetry Business Laureates Choice and awarded the Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice. Unafraid to address large political and social concerns as well as smaller personal ones, this is an emotionally complex debut with a great deal of charm and freshness about it. Jacqueline Saphra on Complicity