Os
Os is the book of the water and the wind, simultaneously elemental and ephemeral. It is also the book of reverse growing up, of the poet reaching closer to their roots. Metaphors here become increasingly translucent, while the weightless world of twilight and softer hues replaces the heavy combination of red, black and white.
Ultimately, Os is a book of fears, but it is also a book of endless, tireless, fearless hoping. It is a step into the transparency that in response opens its welcoming embrace.
Awards
2014
‘Litakcent’ Book of the Year Prize
for poetry
short list
Shuvalova does not say much, she is sparing with words and senses. However, the things she does say are fundamental, substantial and well-weighted. She speaks of the “river,” “land,” “flesh,” “darkness” – of “os.” Her poems contain few biographical details and little external reality; they are concentrated, shut tight. All the things of the world are adjusted to being in this book, and all of them pass through the poet’s own being. (...) She finally writes: “I will come to you – and this will be my way home,” echoing Novalis’s statement that “all the roads lead home.” Os is that home.
”
Myroslav Laiuk
Reviews
As a reader, you have to trust her, to let yourself be held captive, to be fascinated by how effortlessly the author finds her way out of this labyrinth of words and tropes – “from eternity into the present time.”
”
Halyna Kruk
At first glance, her poetry might seem like the culmination of wild Dyonisian passions and the joys of the flesh (Shuvalova’s writing is always deeply erotic). Yet, there always comes a moment in these poems when “the purpose becomes visible inside the transparent body,” when you are reminded that “you come from a very different world.”
”
Svitlana Bohdan
Publisher: Smoloskyp
Pages: 112
Language: Ukrainian
ISBN: 9789662164879