{"product_id":"perennial-counterpart","title":"Perennial Counterpart","description":"Condition: BRAND NEW\u003cbr\u003eISBN: 9781643623108\u003cbr\u003eFormat: Trade paperback (US)\u003cbr\u003eYear: 2026\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Nightboat Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDescription:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNAMED ONE OF \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLITERARY HUB\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'S 'MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2026'\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA poetic study in magical modes of connection over distance – how both friendship and reading are similar ways of being together while being alone.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWritten over several years of solitude, study, and transformation, the poems in \u003ci\u003ePerennial Counterpart\u003c\/i\u003e trace an evolving, self-questioning practice of thinking-in-poetry where long, reflective lines – evoking both prose and photography – brush against elliptical, fractured modes of film and literary criticism. Anchored by the author’s obsessive reading life, this is a book where lyric inquiry becomes its own form of company. Here, the poem is written to remake its writer through glittering connections to a personal lineage of thought.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Chen’s crystalline debut explores memory, nostalgia, and identity in poems that jump-cut between locations – Barcelona, Berlin, Ithaca, New York City...Readers will savor this strong and cerebral study of selfhood.' – \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Are these poems, or exploding postcards dispatched from the land of dreams? Yongyu Chen’s exquisite Perennial Counterpart balances conceptual density with a yearning lyricism: always strange, “unintelligible to the end,” but intelligible to those who speak the language of rain and flowers. A monumental debut.' – Jackie Wang \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'To be with Perennial Counterpart is to “river around\" the intimate folds of its letters, lovers, loved ones, literary souls. Like the strange “fur that grows on a crystal,” Yongyu Chen’s probing language turns mixture into a beguiling\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ALLIANCE DIST - SF","offers":[{"title":"Default","offer_id":41860269080709,"sku":"PR435836","price":47.5,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0562\/0213\/3637\/files\/image_TTGE380WUXS4.jpg?v=1789125921","url":"https:\/\/smartfoxbooks.co.nz\/products\/perennial-counterpart","provider":"Smartfox Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}