Zonal (Hardback)

‘I love the collection’s minutely wrought originality and the way that even dismaying subjects – loneliness, insecurity, botched relationships – have hilarious side-effects. The book made me laugh aloud. It is bracing to see Paterson … returning with eloquence and vim to rhythms of speech.’

‘A joy to read and re-read and re-re-read … as intelligent as [it is] affecting.’

‘Often given to self-reinvention, Paterson has always kept musical panache at the forefront of his multi-award-winning verse … This new book is not only his most seemingly confessional, but also a stylistic departure. Taking its cues from the first season of the TV classic The Twilight Zone, its often surreal, long-lined narratives jump from funny to sad to profound with a suppleness somewhere between Frank O’Hara and CK Williams … The poet’s cutting wit and acute awareness aside, the best poems here are the reimagined character portraits that bookend the collection.’

‘Shows this always inventive poet at his most original … Zonal is a performance of sorts, never less than diabolically clever and, on occasions, very moving.’

‘Paterson at his playful best … a sharp portrayal of what it is to live in a world saturated with information and popular culture, with competing zones of reality and unreality.’