MARIA DUARTE recommends a remarkable study of the friendship between a Palestinian and a Pakistani, broken by a hostile state
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Fatima’s Bird
by Mike Jenkins
MATTHEW HAWKINS rakes through un-fancy words and flair-free summaries to find who and what might be flamboyant
PETER MASON is exhilarated by an exciting, well-considered and historically minded tribute to the great Trinidadian instrument
Reducing historical lives to ‘male’ and ‘female’ roles, we lose the nuance of those lives and a clearer understanding of past societies, suggests CLAIRE ISABELLA GILMOUR
CHRIS SEARLE relishes the genius of pianist Alexander Hawkins, his many ensembles, and his new album
There among fragile homes
of wood, card, nylon,
is Fatima with her bird.
7 years and 7 months
of never being sure.
“If he dies so do I.
But he has kept me alive,
comes everywhere with me.”
She grips the cage,
the bird her heart flutters.
He is her family, her friend.
perhaps he senses, shrieks
at threats from above.
She will never let go.
Even night-time he’s there :
a guide for her dreams,
a flight from her nightmares.
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