Of Breaking Glass

Of Breaking Glass is an elegiac sequence for James Byrne’s brother, Robin, who passed away unexpectedly during the initial Covid lockdown. These poems, set in California’s Death Valley during a heatwave, are an attempt of one sibling to bury another’s first memory: the sound of breaking glass. Ritualising loss, memory and language, this tender, brilliant book, replete with stunning colour photographs, evokes the most intimate kind of writing. Of Breaking Glass is a series of poems that hold out the possibility of becoming something more than our inevitable, eventual end.