AustLit

''This powerful collection leads readers through the harrowing reality of losing everything to bushfire. Broughton experienced the unimaginable. In one terrifying day, she and her husband lost everything: the home where they'd raised a family, all her memorabilia, her journals, all their artwork. And the landscape she'd loved and tended for over forty years was burned beyond recognition. Using a lyrical mix of free verse, Japanese form and prose poetry, this important collection explores loss and renewal on physical, spiritual and ecological levels. Intimately observed and heartbreakingly philosophical, Broughton creates a clear-eyed self-portrait of a woman gently tending hope even within the maelstrom of sorrow. Finding strength in the resilience of her bushland home, Broughton creates a lyrical personal history that speaks of what it means to lose everything, yet still trust in family, community and the natural world to sustain her through the darkest of times.' - Rachael Mead'  (Publication summary)

'"In her poem 'I'm Angry with God Again', Belinda Broughton speaks a truth that can't be denied: Having subdued the earth, / we're living in our own shit, / we're cooking ourselves under heaven. This is an example of the clear and unsentimental eye (and voice) that Broughton brings to bear on a global crisis that needs our attention and action, now. Her poems, showing us the wonder of the world - from the towering magnificence of trees to blue wrens singing their 'hopeful songs' - are prescient reminders of all we stand to lose if we, as human beings, continue to see ourselves as the centre of the universe." - Louise Nicholas

'"Charged with vivid imagery and crackling insight, Broughton's poems and artwork swerve between the minuscule and the planetary as she skilfully unfolds the intricacies of environmental beauty and damage. These poems brim with the poignant tensions that arise from loving our world while bearing witness to the damage humanity inflicts. Within this collection, our world is distilled to its essential elements and humanity is laid bare. Broughton is deeply engaged with the species that surround her, questioning everything and conveying her insights with a perceptiveness that is both precise and lyrical." - Dr Rachael Mead' (Publication summary)

'“This is distilled cartography of a woman’s life. From a child’s-eye view of drought and hardship in the outback to the pains and love of motherhood, Broughton turns her lens of brevity and poignancy on a rich life. With meticulous observation (‘a mopoke echoes its own hollow song’), wry humour (‘my mother is taking over my face’) and wordplay (‘he’s into zen bosom’), Belinda reflects on the panoply of human experience from the metaphysical (‘and the sun / sets / and rises again / each time /more / surprising’) to the basics of armpit hair and farts. A standout collection.” - Rob Walker'  (Publication summary)

'‘Under a bright Australian sun, the fascinating tale of a European life comes to light. In a sequence of incisive poems, Belinda Broughton narrates the voice of Ervin Janek – Hungarian artist and poet, son of a nun and ‘a certain Jewish man’ – who makes his ‘own path’ out of abandonment and poverty, through streets where he can hold his own against cheats and bullies, and into the wider world of exotic experience. Broughton revels in the linguistic portrayal of a character whose de-prived childhood, forced Hitler Youth attendance, flirtation with monastic life, horse riding for a bar-oness, and incarceration under Soviet control builds towards the pivotal uprising of 1956. In poems crafted with humour and sensitivity, Broughton journeys with the character of Janek across the hippie trail to bring the refugee sparrow home to the provenance of the kookaburra. All through the roller-coaster ride, this riveting story will ensnare you’ – Kate Deller-Evans' (Publication summary)