{"product_id":"couples","title":"Couples","description":"“Bleak but wonderful ... familiar, and of course funny.” Alan Bennett\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Dark, funny and twisted, but surprisingly tender.” A.L. Kennedy\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCouples is a blackly comic sequence of poems that explore the nature of co-dependency – of two people who want to be together, but at the same time cannot help but push each other away. \u003cbr\u003e The layout of the book is itself a commentary on the phenomenon – the poems are placed in their own ‘couples’, pairs that face each other across the page. Sometimes they exchange a glance, sometimes they stand side-by-side, staring out into the abyss; only when the book is closed, and they are in darkness, do they truly come together. \u003cbr\u003e Originally published on Valentine’s Day 2013, the seven-year itch has brought Michael Stewart back to his old flame for a new edition in 2020; reworking the original poems, and adding a dozen more. The result is an unnervingly perceptive volume, to be shared with your ‘other half’ at your own risk – you may never look at a couple, or each other, the same way again.","brand":"Valley Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55245856571727,"sku":"9781912436408","price":13.95,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0061\/0372\/8217\/files\/9781912436408_1-couples.jpg?v=1770124375","url":"https:\/\/www.suomalainen.com\/products\/couples","provider":"Suomalainen.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}