In a Language That You Know

South Africa is a complicated, contradictory, and haunted place. Len Verwey captures the trajectory of life in such a place, dealing with childhood, war, marriage, divorce, and death. He explores the challenges posed by place and history, shared identities, deep embeddedness in the continent, and the legacies of violence and exclusion, as well as beauty.

Verwey offers poems that speak of uncertainty, ask questions, and challenge simplistic and scapegoating narratives that become so temptin...