Surviving Words

Surviving Words is Endre Farkas' seventh book of poetry and his most powerful and accomplished to date. It is a collection of singular yet interwoven poems that, with haunting simplicity, evokes the horrors we inflict upon each other. The book begins with his parents' experiences in Auschwitz and Mauthausen, moves on to deal with his childhood memories of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, and concludes with poems about the ongoing acts of genocide. The poems in Surviving Words are striking for their imagery and tone. With subtle irony, they remind us that "nothing is forgotten/nothing is ever forgotten."