Subject: lovers, liars, conjurers and thieves
Date: Sat, 27 Dec 2003 16:51:49 -0000


dear all,
wanted to invite you to check out my new book of poetry 'Lovers, Liars,
Conjurers and Thieves,' published by Peepal Tree Press.
it would be of particular interest to those who are working in the area of
British South Asian writing, identity, gender, sexuality, migration,
translation, Black British politics and the post colonial experience. the
book also contains work in urdu and work that weaves, punjabi, urdu and
english together. i've pasted some info. for your reference below. if anyone
would be interested in reviewing the book, please contact my publisher-
details provided below. for further info. on the book and me and my work,
please visit www.ramanmundair.com
feel free to forward this info. on to wherever appropriate.
many thanks,
raman

>From beginnings secreted in the folds of her mother's sari, transplanted to
England to struggle with the rough musicality of Mancunian vowels, Raman
Mundair, a Punjabi Alice, found no true reflection of herself, no
wonderland, but mirrors which dissolved, shrank and obscured her size. In
these poems she creates her own universe and dissects its realities in all
its complex, tragic and surreal forms. At the heart of the collection is an
acute sensitivity to the body: hurt, aroused, desired, ignored. Her poems
spill out from this centre: to the physical memory of domestic violence, the
intense joys of intimacy and love, and the pain of their rejection, to a
passionate concern with the body politic. Here, whether her focus is on the
non-sense of religious exclusion, the seismic fault of partition that
continues to tremor, or the racist murders of Stephen Lawrence and Ricky
Reel, the approach is oblique, metaphorical, observant of the details that
carry the poems beyond political statement. For Mundair, there is, too, a
world beyond Britain, seen with more than just a vivid eye for the ironies
and pleasures of travel. Raman Mundair's voice encompasses the most
delicate, shimmering images and a raw, abrasive, sometimes angry energy.
There is a probing intellect at work that arranges the world in new ways,
and a sensuous truth to feeling that puts the reader inside the experience
of the poems. Each poem has its own distinctiveness, but there is also an
architecture that makes the collection a satisfying whole. There is room,
too, for a sense of the absurd and a macabre sense of humour. How would you
deal with the thief of your heart?

Peepal Tree Press
17 King's Avenue, Leeds, LS6 1QS, UK
-email: orders-AT-peepaltreepress.com
hannah-AT-peepaltreepress.com

www.ramanmundair.com



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