Foreign Editions
Germany
Anthea Verlag
Not only people live in cities, they are also homes for animals, birds, and plants. It is to these that Marie Iljašenko dedicates her third collection, accompanied by illustrations from Ukrainian artist Mariko Gelman. Here foxes rest in the shadows of London telephone boxes, trout monitor the water quality in a Prague sewage treatment plant, and wild peas flourish between the lanes of a city ring road. But expect no idyll, at best, people ignore their neighbors or are superficially impressed by them and at worst they deny them the right to a home. The poems tell of habitats such as streams, abandoned sites, street canyons and green corridors and of traps in the form of glass surfaces, thorns, skylights and bars. Is it possible to talk about animals and plants, or even speak in their voice, while avoiding simplification, lecturing and anthropomorphizing? One must at least try. Urban, natural and at the same time intimate poetry about the everyday life of a pheasant, about the demon of cuteness, owls, hares, philodendron, cats and tomcats and about coexistence with them.
Published in 2025 by Host Publishers in the Czech Republic.
96 pages / 14,6 x 18,4 cm
Also by mARIE iLJAŠENKO
