{"product_id":"9781800173293-grid","title":"The Grid","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn poems and translations, \u003ci\u003eThe Grid\u003c\/i\u003e tells a highly unusual set of stories about the end of the world, ancient and modern.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLonglisted for the Michael Murphy Memorial Poetry Prize 2025\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eShortlisted for the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2024\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eShortlisted for the John Pollard Poetry Prize 2024\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Telegraph\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e Book of the Year\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Telegraph\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e Poetry Book of the Month August 2023\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Grid\u003c\/i\u003e is about the end of worlds, ancient and modern. In three sequences of poems interspersed with Mandel's own translations from classical texts, figures of obsession and loneliness try to decrypt what Maurice Blanchot called 'the writing of the disaster'. Like a detective novel, the title sequence pieces together archival fragments into a lyric essay about Alice Kober, the half-forgotten scholar behind the decipherment of the ancient writing system called Linear B. Across different wartimes, Mandel adapts the typography and formatting of archived papers, their overlaps and errors and aporias, which compel readers to invest creatively in the very act of reading, learning new ways into language as they go.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe leaps between past and present work in dialogue like a series of exhilarating stepping stones. This is a collection of what, though sometimes written as prose, turn out to be poems. From Ovid's bitter letters of exile to the prime minister's letters of instruction to nuclear submarine captains, \u003ci\u003eThe Grid\u003c\/i\u003e tells a series of stories about four thousand years of apocalypse. Strange, humane, and deeply rooted in the ancient world, Mandel's first book surveys the ruins of the West with no nostalgia.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40886314893409,"sku":"9781800173293","price":10.23,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/orig_35899845_85abd245-8519-4d42-a03c-44b982731a1a.jpg?v=1756932609","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9781800173293-grid","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}