Budapest to Babel

Winner of the inaugural Jane Martin Prize for Poetry. ...and I watch the oxidised stations go by slowly dozing to the sound of the fine talk in a cradle of soft sentences...through the window I spot two storks over the lake, two forgotten orthographic signs I could not read anymore written in the reeds wings open...and I notice another one and two or three more; the entire country covered with copper-beaked white storks. The well-known Babel myth provides the backbone for the first cycle of poems and a departure point for further journeys in this, Lehoczky s first book in English. Budapest to Babel is a rewarding and focussed exploration of the difficulties and joys of encountering and engaging fully with a new language. States of confusion and chaos, playfulness and joy are all explored throughout this lively and rewarding debut.