We needn't worry again about how to read Akhmatova in translation... the translations are remarkable. Reading this enormous, impeccable book, we watch her work achieve the supreme goal of lyric poetry: to transfigure loss without belittling it, commemorate love without cooling it, and embody the truth of disparate lives in a single self.
- Andrew Motion, * The Observer *
Hemschemeyer's versions are the best I have ever seen. This great lilac brick of a book is a stupendous bargain.
- Michael Hoffman, * The Times *
This edition is an enormous achievement . . . usefully annotated and well illustrated. The text is the definitive English-language edition of Akhmatova . . . a ground-breaking work.
- Elizabeth Burns, * The Scotsman *
A fitting tribute to one of the greatest poets of the century... this is a volume to be treasured.
* The Good Book Guide *
This is one of the most important publications of the year, if not the decade.
- Adam Thorpe, * Literary Review *
From the artistic passion of the St Petersburg poets and bohemians, to the collective suffering of a nation, Anna Akhmatova spoke to, and for, the soul of her people.
This magnificent edition includes: more than 800 poems, half of them available in no other translated edition: translator's preface: biographical introduction by Roberta Reeder: more than 125 photographs, including a 65 page photo biography, and 'The Artist's Muse' images of Akhmatova in art: memoir by Isaiah Berlin: comprehensive notes to the poems: index of first lines: bibliography.