astéronyme, n. (French). A sequence of asterisks used to hide a name or password.
In this follow-up to her acclaimed debut, The Shipwrecked House (Guardian First Book Award longlisted), Anglo-Breton poet Claire Trévien takes us to a place where ancient stone circles collide with the language of the internet.
Trévien becomes curator of imaginary museums, indexing objects and histories with a quixotic energy. The stunning central sequence recounts a journey across the Scottish island of Arran, where myths are carved into remote caves and a mountain hides behind a 'froufrou of gas'.
Formally inventive and intricately composed, Astéronymes is a book of redactions - and an elegy for places and people that have been ruined by time, erosion or neglect.