A Grammar of the World

A slim, emotionally and thematically rich book of poetry, a grammar of the world is Jeanne Benameur's second book published in English by Les Fugitives, offering a more personal look into the author's own history and writing practice. For Benameur, the Egyptian goddess Isis is a sister who advances with her along the seashore. Like her, poetry responds to life's call where the blue of the sky mingles with the blue of the sea. She is unity rediscovered. Drawing on subjects as diverse as the author's childhood traumatic flight from the Algerian War of Independence in the late 1950s, the modern migrant crisis, the transformative power of writing and the long history of the Mediterranean, a grammar of the world is brought into harmony by the central mythological figure, who personifies a careful reknitting of the world and repairing of ancient wounds through the act of writing.