War isn't good for much and it isn't usually good to poets. But it frequently provokes some remarkable writing. This harrowing anthology of the poetic remains of the 30-year war in Sri Lanka is all the more compelling because it is in the Tamil voice of the defeated. What struck me hardest was the particularity of so much of the imagery: the preoccupation with individual homes, streets, shops and days. And, of course, individual individuals. The universal particulars of loss.