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 exploresthe challenges posed byplace and history, shared identities, deep embeddedness in the continent, and the legacies of violence andexclusion, as well as beauty. Verwey offers poems that speak of uncertainty, ask questions, and challenge simplistic and scapegoating narratives that become so tempting when living in a society undergoing intense social and economic pressure. Dealingless with factual or political explanations of war and more with the compulsion of war, in particular, "maleness" and violence,Verwey pulls the reader into another world, opening eyes to the "crisis of men,"the violence against women, children, and the foreign in a country where conflicts areagainescalating. In a Language That You Knowstrives to understandthe complexity of one of the most unequal,violent, yet most vibrant societies in the world.