What first strikes the reader on picking up Sara Myskine’s work is her incandescent language, a language which transcends the heart-breaking subject and terrible context it describes. It is through poetry that the narrator, though excluded from her own life, reaches towards the sublime. – Le Bruit du Monde

A rare splendour. Mychkine does not only deliver a novel on social torments: the painting of the mother is given there with the search for a voice, an always demanding form. — Diacritik

A long missive punctuated in seventeen movements, like so many convulsions, kisses and mixed sobs. — Le Monde des Livres

A mother’s letter to her daughter to conjure obliteration.
The first novel by a poet engaged in contemporary political, sociological and artistic issues.

When her baby is taken from her by social services, a mother begins to write a letter. It is destined for her daughter, and is the means by which she will attempt to explain not only the events that have led to her desperate situation, but also the love she feels for her child.

In it she confronts her past traumas, the brutal realities of crack-addiction, and her life as woman of colour who is treated with contempt by a society which denies her humanity. Yet her letter is also a remarkable testament to the power of love, even at great personal sacrifice, and how, through the poetic expression of its bonds, light and strength can be found even in the bleakest of circumstances.