A thoughtful and masterful novel in verse by an innovative 20th-century poet.
One of England's foremost poets, Craig Raine offers a "bold, ambitious chronicle of life" (
New York Times Review) told through the stories of two families, the Pasternaks and the Raines, who touch each other and are touched by history in different ways. Like a home movie, this novel in verse masterfully conjures the world in which these families move by re-creating the texture of ordinary and extraordinary life. Blending fact, fiction, and thrilling leaps of imagination,
History: The Home Movie promises to be the film you'll ever read.
"Craig Raine's History admirably reclaims poetry's narrative function, its capacity to fictionally propose a world as complex and mysterious as reality itself. A challenging, innovative, and unsettling novel in verse."--
Los Angeles Times "A sly, surprising, brilliant, and yes, readable book."--
Boston Phoenix