Tomas Transtr�mer (1933-2015) received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2011. His books of poetry, which have been translated into sixty languages, include The Deleted World and The Half-Finished Heaven, and he received numerous international honors during his lifetime. Transtr�mer, a trained Swedish psychologist, worked for years in state institutions with juveniles and the disabled, and his work was often praised for the inventive ways in which it examined the mind. When he was awarded the Nobel Prize, the Swedish Academy stated that "through his condensed, translucent images, he gave us fresh access to reality."
"For decades U.S. poets and those in the know have been talking about Transtr�mer, the haunting Swedish poet who's supposedly been on the Nobel shortlist for years. Now that he's actually taken this year's prize, he's no longer a secret. Readers can choose from several selections of poems with different English translators--from New Directions, Ecco, Graywolf, and others--all of which are pretty good, though this little book rushed out by FSG may be the best introduction . . . U.K. poetry star Robertson offers his lucid versions of 15 poems from throughout Transtr�mer's long career, which began in the '50s . . . While readers will certainly be left wanting more pages, the fact that they will is a tribute to Robertson's clear and deep sympathy with Transtr�mer's world." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) "His renderings are more fluid when it comes to English syntax than some translations I've read that may be more accurate but are somewhat stilted . . . Robertson has done justice to the greatest qualities of Transtr�mer's poems: their evocative, striking imagery and uncanny metaphorical resonance . . . It's a collection that sparks with an exquisite, awakened awareness of the world." --Barbara Carey, Toronto Star "Robin Robertson, himself no mean verse-maker, has taken a small selection from Transtr�mer's 11 volumes and rendered them beautifully. And he has done so in a form that maintains the resonance and forceful imagery of the originals, and their engagement with the natural world, as well as providing a nimble introduction . . . Lovely stuff." --Globe & Mail "Robertson's fine work comes at an ideal time . . . Transtr�mer's world is deeply northern, with scenes of snow, islands in chill waters, clouds and mists. But always, he is really speaking about innerscapes of the human soul . . . Robertson transmits the startle." --Philadelphia Inquirer
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