Bolger travels back to his roots in a collection that’s full of life

This timely anthology is a supple and touching exploration of exile and defiance, love and loss

Dermot Bolger: working at multiple levels, both personal and political Picture: Feargal Ward

POETRY; That Which Is Suddenly Precious: New and Selected Poems; By Dermot Bolger; New Island, €15

When poet, playwright and novelist Dermot Bolger’s beloved wife Bernie passed away suddenly in 2010, he was left so grief-stricken that he felt he would never write again.

Eventually, the Dubliner did compose another work: The Venice Suite, reconstructed from notes scribbled in the wake of her death, and a harrowing distillation of his loss, as he ...