Midnight, Dhaka

Mir Mahfuz Ali is an exceptional new voice in British poetry; native of what is now Bangladesh, Mahfuz grew up during the difficult period of the early 1970s when the region was struck, first by a devastating cyclone, then by a particularly vicious civil war. As a boy, Mahfuz witnessed atrocities and writes about them with a searing directness in poems like “My Salma” and the title poem. But much more than this, his trauma becomes transformative, and his poetry the key to unlocking memories of a childhood that are rich in nuance, gorgeous in detail, and evocative of a beautiful country. They celebrate the human capacity for love, survival and renewal.