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Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky is a collection of poems, but it reads like a novella in verse. It reminded me a lot of Light Boxes by Shane Jones, in the sense that both are unconventional stories about a village at war, grappling with light and dark and hope and art in the face of overwhelming loss and grief. But whereas Light Boxes is more subtle, Deaf Republic pulls no punches. It’s an allegory about the cost of complicity and the violence of silence - a reckoning that hits painfully close to home. It’s use of verse as well as sign language is really impactful and unlike anything I’ve come across before. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ TW: death, violence ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ID: I’m holding up a softcover copy of Deaf Republic against a cream colored wall. via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/CQYmNZQr04z/