MARIA DUARTE recommends a remarkable study of the friendship between a Palestinian and a Pakistani, broken by a hostile state
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Jonathan Taylor - Liar
Well Versed is edited by Jody Porter
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
Liar
Jonathan Taylor
Long before presidents seemed so crazy
(though that might well have been illusory),
long before anyone mentioned global warming,
before wars were anything but bottled messages
washed up on the sinking island of childhood,
and before disease bludgeoned you to death
over godforsaken months and years,
I cracked my head open on a metal railing.
In hospital you held my hand when I cried
and told me everything – head, world,
et cetera – would be okay. You lied.
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