
Member Reviews

This is a beautiful and heart wrenching poetry collection. I found myself wanting to read the texts referenced in the second half of the collection so I could better understand, but this did not impact my rating at all. Almallah conveys the grief and collective pain of being Palestinian and seeing your homeland destroyed by colonist settlers.
This is a definite read for anyone who enjoys poetry.
Thank you NetGalley and fonograf editions for the arc

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Ahmad Almallah must be an incredibly intelligent person, because these poems were way too dense for me. I had a hard time finding meaning in them... Or even understanding them.
I'm sure this collection of poetry will be great for some, but it's just not for me.

This book was really well written. While some of the poems seemed to go on a little too long, there was a lot of strength and emotion evoked in the words. It was definitely worth it to read.

“Wrong winds” by ahmad almallah took me a while to read through, because every poem meant so much, had so much inside of it, that it felt heavy. I think this book is one of those books that I would say is importanr right now, something that deserves to be spread.

'wrong winds' by ahmad almallah is a lyrical treasure trove of poetry by a man who had to helplessly witness the destruction of his homeland. it was such a beautiful collection to read, and i say that as a person who avoid poetry like the plague. i will definitely be revisiting certain poems, as some deeply deeply resonated with me. while not every poem did not strike the same chord, they were all over-all pretty lovely to read. i feel like a few of them slipped through my mind, but if you appreciate intriguing spatial arrangements in poetry and well written poetry, this book might be just what you're looking for!

I can see the author put a lot of time, emotion, and energy into this collection of poems. Personally, I struggled with the lose formatting and wasn't able to follow the authors thought process or nail down what the poem was about due to wording. That is a fault of my own, and I would be interested in reading the authors other works. We need to bring Palestinian voices to the forefront. Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this digital ARC.

this collection reads like a play. there are asides and soliloquies, some poems feel as though they are broken into scenes, and there is a sense of movement toward a larger story, a larger purpose, through out. there are reoccurring stanzas through where the author holds a mirror up to the reader and dares them to look into it, shows them what war and genocide looks like. a mirror is more personal than a television screen. i love a fractured poem, of which this collection has many. in these poems, there are few words on the page and they are always swallowed by their white canvas. here, the reader anchors onto each word, rolls them slowly in their mouths, lets meaning wash over them. these are point where the writing slows, but there is no respite: more like jumping from jagged rock to jagged rock as you try and cross. war-torn sea. this is a collection wherein horror and beauty and grief and love all coalesce.

Each poem captivates the reader in its own unique way. From the structure to the tone, each entry illicit raw emotion. Understanding the Palestinian experience through poetry was captivating, expressing life through imagery and realism.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

'wrong winds' by ahmad almallah is a lyrical treasure trove of poetry by a man who had to witness the destruction of his homeland. it was such a beautiful collection to read, and i say that as a person who avoid poetry like the plague. i will definitely be revisiting certain poems, as some deeply deeply resonated with me. while not every poem did not strike the same chord, they were all over-all pretty lovely to read. i feel like a few of them slipped through my mind, but if you appreciate intriguing spatial arrangements in poetry (if that's the right term) and well written poetry, this book might be just what you're looking for!

This is a beautiful collection by Palestinian-American poet Ahmad Almallah, written during the early months of Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza. It is a short but impactful work that is both well-written and thought-provoking. I read the entire book aloud, only pausing occasionally to wipe away my tears. While it did sometimes lose its rhythm, I didn’t mind stumbling through those sections. There wasn’t a clear divide between the first and second halves, but I found a noticeable difference in style and found myself more deeply affected by the first half.

"where do they find pawns
to sacrifice themselves, one square
at a time, to accept the smaller fates,
while kinds and queens huddle
backstage, twirling their fingers,
expecting glory to meet them halfway?"
almallah's poetry collection is a raw experience of a palestinian man, forced to see his homeland destroyed and slaughtered from afar. it's a rumination of the influence that western colonialism had on the modern-day world, on the very genocide in play.
the works seem to be split into two halves—some more personal, emotional, speaking of palestine and gaza overtly. of the shared pain and grief, of a life lost and life that cannot be recovered. the other half feels more of a meditation on the work of almallah's peers and authors whose works he's admired over the years. i was particularly drawn to the poems discussing the arabic influence in spain, "some verses for the depressed rebel" and "poet in andalusia/andalusia in the poet", and they've piqued my interest to look more into this chapter of history that i've only superficially learned of.
"wrong winds" is a beautiful play of words and languages, deeply loving and grieving in equal parts.

This was so beautiful. I have reread some of the poems on a daily basis because they bring so much and gives me a peace of mind. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

The book was lovely. If you are a spatially aware person who doesn’t mind a clever usage of space in poems, this collection may be for you. I enjoyed quite a bit of if and highlighted large swathes of the poems but as the collection continued, it collapsed in on itself just a touch. Would recommend!

I want it to be known that the subject matter presented by Almallah is not just worthy of attention and a voice, but deeply important in the name of sharing awareness to anyone and everyone. The Palestinian genocide is a heavy weight on the hearts of many, and I cannot fathom having the experiences that the author has in life. that being said, the writing style has a lot of things such as numerous line breaks and flowery words that I tend to not prefer, but this is not a comment on the skill of the writer. I think it just isn't my favorite format, but there WILL absolutely be those that connect with these poems.

Numbers, numbers, numbers: What the Gazans have been reduced to for years. This poetry collection is hauntingly beautiful and musical, somber but brave. Read the poems aloud, and you will appreciate them even more. Now and then, it loses its rhythm; nevertheless, those poems are not meant to be read once but carried with you for some time after you finish reading... and, I must add: This is such a beautiful, thought-out cover.

5/5 ⭐️
Thanks to NetGalley, Fonograf Editions, & Ahmad Almallah for sending me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
What a beautiful collection of poems. It’s always interesting to read poetry from people who are living such different lives than you are because it’s such a deeply personal medium. Even something as simple as the way a poem is formatted says so much about the emotions the author was feeling when they wrote it. Line breaks and white space add to the sense of emptiness and helplessness. Is it chaotic? Yes, that’s the point.

This collection was poignant and painful.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.
Ok, I nearly had to take a break from this collection before I realized how Almallah was using language. The first half or so of the collection, I was a little worried that the text had gotten scrambled, but it is actually Almallah manipulating language as he works through the poems’ topics. The second half has much clearer text. I have to admit, the latter half did resonate more with me simply because I could follow along. The first half felt like puzzle pieces more than a conversation.
The poems cover many topics and influences from Lorca and Granada to Berlin to Palestine to T.S. Eliot. I liked the poems in conversation with other artists a good deal.
This is quite a sad-toned collection as Almallah writes on difficult, sad topics, but he does some interesting work with language and the meanings of words

"How can summer be in a place
that knows so much ash"
I was fairly excited to read this one, and I appreciate the topic.
It certainly left me with a lot of thoughts.
There are many both beautiful and heartbreaking sentiments and a great number of poems worth rereading.
I think one can appreciate the feeling of a poem, even if they don't necessarily understand everything that is happening.
This being said, this just didn't completely click for me - I love line breaks and formatting to be smartly placed, and with this one, I got a feeling that it was very chaotic, almost like the author just wanted to look artistic. I am sad that I feel like the emotions didn't completely transfer to me through these poems. I was constantly waiting for something deeper to hit me, and it never did, unfortunately.
However, there are still many beautiful motives throughout, and I appreciate the author's skill. I think this one just wasn't for me.
Thanks to the NetGalley, author, and publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A solid collection and a quick read. However, to me it somewhat lacked the depth I was expecting. I was also a bit thrown off by the constant use of exclamation marks and ‘etc’, but perhaps that’s just me.

Poems worth contemplating, with rich and relevant subject matter. I found the longer-lined poems more compelling; poems with unnecessary/frequent enjambment and line breaks are not necessarily my taste. I wished for something deeper in the content of the poems since much of the time the structure did not make a meaningful impact on me.
Thank you to NetGalley and Fonograf Editions for the ARC.