The Pop-up Book of Invasions - Fiona Farrell

This wonderful new collection is written out of Farrell's experience in Ireland on the Rathcoola Writer's Residency. The poems draw heavily and vividly on the landscape, history and mythology of Ireland, sharing a sense of discovery, but they also make connections with home, New Zealand, childhood. Thus a canoe in the National Museum, 'Black boat from a brown bog', recalls the waka: 'You think of yours as I think of/ mine, setting sail in their black / canoe'. The poet also remembers her Irish father, now dead, who emigrated to New Zealand and all the many migrations or 'invasions' of the past and the present. And she adapts and transforms several ancient Irish texts, rewriting their stories for a contemporary world; the voluminous notes are a fascinating Irish education in themselves. This is a beautifully constructed, thoughtful, topical and original book.