MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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On Seeing Things
by Abeer Ameer
New releases from Mountain, Soul Asylum and Michael McDermott
ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
She’s five, tells the interviewer that she was beautiful
once. Once, in the days before the war, before this,
I had full cheeks, a bigger face. I was so beautiful, she says.
She gestures with her hands, smiles at the camera.
The camera keeps rolling. A nine-year-old wears a bandana.
She holds the strands of hair at the back of her head.
She’s bald at the front. I had the most beautiful hair, once.
But it all fell out. Her mother says she’s scared all the time.
The camera pans out to two boys on the floor. The older boy
comforts his younger brother, whose head is in his lap.
He’s stroking his hair, rubbing his sobbing brother’s back.
They are both younger than four.
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When Cassy’s father fails to connect with his daughter — and misses out on
an evening in the Bitter End — a stranger’s self-mocking charm brings seething resentment.
PETER MASON suggests that someone should fulfil the dreams of a talented (and privileged) British Nigerian actor
by Uzmah Ali