{"product_id":"9780374713690","title":"Heaven","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e's Best Poetry Collections of 2015\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne of NPR's Best Books of 2015\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLong-listed for the National Book Award in poetry\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Who the hell's heaven is this?\" Rowan Ricardo Phillips offers many answers, and none at all, in \u003ci\u003eHeaven\u003c\/i\u003e, the piercing and revelatory encore to his award-winning debut, \u003ci\u003eThe Ground\u003c\/i\u003e. Swerving elegantly from humor to heartbreak, from Colorado to Florida, from Dante's \u003ci\u003eParadise\u003c\/i\u003e to Homer's \u003ci\u003eIliad\u003c\/i\u003e, from knowledge to ignorance to awe, Phillips turns his gaze upward and outward, probing and upending notions of the beyond.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e     \"Feeling, real feeling \/ with all its faulty \/ Architecture, is \/ Beyond a god's touch\"—but it does not elude Phillips. Meditating on feverish boyhood, on two paintings by Chuck Close, on Shakespeare's \u003ci\u003eMeasure for Measure\u003c\/i\u003e, on a dead rooster by the side of the road in Ohio, on an elk grazing outside his window, his language remains eternally intoxicating, full of play, pathos, and surprise.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e     \"The end,\" he writes, \"like \/ All I've ever told you, is uncertain.\" Or, elsewhere: \"The only way then to know a truth \/ Is to squint in its direction and poke.\" Phillips—who received a 2013 Whiting Writers' Award as well as the PEN\/Joyce Osterweil Award—may not be certain, but as he squints and pokes in the direction of truth, his power of perception and elegance of expression create a place where beauty and truth come together and drift apart like a planet orbiting its star. The result is a book whose lush and wounding beauty will leave its mark on readers long after they've turned the last page.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Farrar, Straus and Giroux","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47104124748016,"sku":"9780374713690","price":9.23,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780374713690_p0.jpg?v=1769916087","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780374713690","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}