Riordan's fifth collection of poems is both a dark art and an illuminating interrogation of contemporary anxiety and desire. Maurice Riordan's keenly anticipated new collection continues his agile exploration of time, both in its depredations and rewards, while also bringing a sceptical, enquiring intelligence to bear on the anxieties and vanities of our age. Here we have disquieting songs of a mutable self; a projected online deathbed confession; the soul haranguing the body; while encounters with ghostly feet and tongues of fire consort with riffs on Baudelaire, Rilke and Old English. These poems pulse with mischief and macabre humor, making for a pungent and haunting read. With this book, Riordan - a poet whose subtle, rippling influence is felt by all in his wake - affirms the Guardian's assessment of The Water Stealer (2013) as strong, wise and enduring.