All That Remains explores our frailty in various forms – physical, emotional, spiritual – as we march onwards to the drumbeat of time. Some poems are reflections on quiet yet devastating moments of clarity, of the sort that mark turning points in our lives. Some are musings of an outsider staring at familiar surroundings in disbelief. Others are attempts to find meaning and fulfilment in the dreamscape of the modern world, while grappling with the question of what it takes to lead a good life. Drawing them all together is the author’s conviction that language is music, that words have a meaning defined not only by dictionaries but also by their rhythm, melody and counterpoint.
All That Remains explores with vigorous clarity the complexities, difficulties, and vulnerabilities embedded in our moral and social lives. The poems are rich in observation and capture with tenderness, and sometimes with irony, attempts to find meaning and cohesion within a dizzying array of experiences. This collection is attended by a deep sense of what language can achieve when it is musical, investigative, and precise; it carries the undertow of an engaged mind operating with a responsive heart. – Judith Beveridge
A voice of great charm and meditative intelligence, speaking through prose poems that range from parables of everyday experience to jokes to profound philosophical riffs, with more than a few masterpieces among them. – Peter Goldsworthy
John Tesarsch is the author of four acclaimed novels: The Philanthropist, The Last Will and Testament of Henry Hoffman, Dinner with the Dissidents (shortlisted for the Colin Roderick Award) and, most recently, When Jokers Were Kings. He has degrees in music and law, and pursued a career as a cellist in Vienna before he turned to writing. After travelling widely he returned to Australia, where he lives with his wife and two children. He is also a barrister and lectures in law at the University of Melbourne.
