How the Stone Found Its Voice

Moniza Alvi’s title sequence How The Stone Found Its Voice is a series of poems inspired by creation myths. Begun in the wake of the tragedy of 9/11, they are imbued with the dark spirit of that time, with titles including ‘How The World Split In Two’, ‘How The Answers Got Their Questions’ and ‘How The Countries Slipped Away’.

These are followed by poems in which Moniza Alvi takes a more autobiographical approach to racial conflict and the split between East and West, and by The Return of My Wife‚ a continuation of a sequence from her earlier book Carrying My Wife. Versions of the French poet Jules Supervielle (1884-1960) with their Second World War background and exploration of personal fragility provide a linking thread. How the Stone Found Its Voice is a varied collection with echoes across its different sections, all equally vital to the whole.

‘Alvi is a bold surrealist, whose poems open the world up in new, imaginatively absurd ways’ – Ruth Padel, Independent

‘Moniza Alvi’s world is a place of wild energy…Alvi’s voice has achieved a relaxed naturalness, a fluidity which allows her to present these delicious, extraordinary poems as though it were easy’ – Kathleen Jamie & Hugo Williams, PBS Bulletin

‘She is a skilled storyteller, recounting the extraordinary in the voice of the everyday, so that we accept the miraculous as something we need…the overriding impression is of a deft, restrained language carrying ideas with metaphysical wit and seriousness’ – Leonie Rushforth, London Magazine