In this, her second collection, Afric McGlinchey dives into a ‘river of familiars’, inspired by the Parisian urban myth of a black cat and its apothecary owner. Borders between the fantastical and the real blur as characters and relationships are evoked in lyrics that veer from natural to political to perceptual disturbances, from the ghostly to the hallucinatory. Some characters are frozen in inaction, while others overcome seemingly impossible odds.
Across a time-space continuum, what unifies the collection is the power of the imagination
and will to transcend our circumstances, to answer the mysterious imperatives of the heart.
'Afric McGlinchey’s poems....work a plethora of intriguing images into beguiling narratives and have something of John Ashbery about them.’ Ryan Rushton (The Skinny Mag)
‘Afric McGlinchey belongs to an endangered species: she sees the world through the eyes of her soul.’ Paul Durcan