BESTSELLING EUROPEAN AUTHOR ANNA ENQUIST'S POETRY AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST TIME

Poems about mothers and children reveal a world of heart-rending intimacy

"Sublime poetry" - NRC Handelsblad

"Written in blood … Anna Enquist's collections sell so well because they offer an intelligent form of solace, and because of their undeniably sharp observations, their sensitivity and their resonance." - Het Parool

I've lost the girl and the boy. I lost sight/ of them when time slipped by…Bedazzle my eyes, dissolve my voice. / Dead bodies and fellow sufferers learn/ to swim in timeless water and so do I. From that great darkness/ lift up this image: she takes his hand, together they run down dikes and over meadows.      (From Invocation)

Anna Enquist is a musician, a psychoanalyst, a poet and a novelist. One of the best-loved writers of her native Holland, she is also a best-selling author in Germany, Switzerland, France, Sweden and Austria. Her first collection of poetry won the award for new Dutch poetry - the prestigious C. Buddingh' prize - and has been followed by four more collections of poetry, all of which have gone back to press frequently. Her novels have achieved similar acclaim; The Masterpiece, The Secret and Ice Carriers all proved to be runaway bestsellers, each with over 250,000 copies sold. The Secret won the 1997 Dutch Readers' Prize. All are available from The Toby Press.

For this first collection of Enquist's poetry to be published in English, she has selected thematically from her previous five volumes, choosing poetry that focuses on mothers and children, poetry she wrote drawing on her experiences of bringing up her son and daughter. With all her many interests, Enquist's first love was poetry, and she has used it to express herself throughout her varied career. Enquist has said that although the pressure of family life extinguished any hopes of her becoming a professional pianist, nothing has made her as happy as motherhood, and this truth lies at the center of THE FIRE WAS HERE (Toby Press, October 29 2003, $17.95). The three themes of her adult life - music, psychology and motherhood - are united in this harvest of autobiographical themes. These are poems about ordinary life written with extraordinary sensitivity and insight. A courageous and insightful collection, it gives us access to emotions we all recognise - the touch of tenderness, the ache of longing and the sweep of passion. The collection opens up Enquist's uniquely intimate, passionate world to the English reader for the first time - and it will change your life.

The Fire was Here was originally published as Hier was vuur. It is translated by David Colmer.