Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Yannis Ritsos (1909 1990), one of Greece s great poets, was nine times nominated for the Nobel Prize. In Secret gives the reader David Harsent s free versions, re-imaginings, adaptations a precious few of Yannis Ritsos short lyrics. His books were publicly burned and he spent many years in prison or in island detention camps. Ritsos sometimes wrote at near-epic length, but much of his work consists of short lyrics: story-fragments, tiny psychodramas.
Harsent has an unmistakable, endlessly adaptable style, able to hit every tone on the scale, from leer to lament . . . Pain and loss light us through the darkness. From The Guardian review of Harsent s Night by Frances Leviston"