In this collection, acclaimed Jamaican poet Kei Miller dramatizes what happens when one system of knowledge, one method of understanding place and territory, comes up against another. We watch as the cartographer, used to the scientific methods of assuming control over a place by mapping it, is gradually compelled to recognize–even to envy–a wholly different understanding of place, as he tries to map his way to the rastaman’s eternal city of Zion. As the book unfolds the cartographer learns that, on this island of roads that “constrict like throats,” every place-name comes freighted with history, and not every place that can be named can be found.

Shortlisted for the Forward Prize 2014 and the International Dylan Thomas Prize 2014.

‘Raise high the roofbeams, here comes a strong new presence in poetry. . . . Kei Miller’s voice speaks and sings with rare confidence and authority.’ –Lorna Goodison, Jamaican poet and professor, University of Michigan