A corpse is also a garden

Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal is one of the leading young Afrikaans poets of his generation. In this, a self-translated selection of poems from his first two collections, readers in English are invited to experience Odendaal's stunningly confident and self- deconstructing work for the first time.

Odendaal's understated, precise style exhibits a maturity beyond his years - whether he is reckoning with the hideous deeds of his ancestors, the tribulations of young love, or the various everyday wonders and horrors of modern South Africa. These are poems that affirm our deepest and most profound connections, both with each other and our environments - the places that birth us, and the earth to which we all return.