Víctor del ÁrbolBreathing through the Wound by Lisa Dillman

a balance, citing her own interactions with the figures she captures only to better frame them as people, whose lives will continue long after the author’s interaction with them ends. To the Lake summons the bulk of its power during these moments as Kassabova begs what is to become of community when its turmoil appears ceaseless. Appropriately, the constant of both lakes is reflection. Even as the story’s pace quickens as Kassabova approaches St. Naum’s Monastery, contemplation is at the forefront, with the implication that though the effort to chronicle the region will be constant, the memory the lake already harbors is ancestral. Kassabova finds no amount of reappropriated borders or ideological clashes will change the fundamental functions of the lakes: to remain as they are. Though it covers less literal terrain than its predecessor, Kassabova’s journey is more expansive. This, coupled with the raw candor of its many conversations, gives the book an undeniable pulse. Through its sincerity and profundity, To the Lake proves Kapka Kassabova’s to be one of Eurasia’s definitive literary voices. Daniel Bokemper Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Books in Review Víctor del Árbol Breathing through the Wound Trans. Lisa Dillman. New York. Other Press. 2020. 688 pages. VÍCTOR DEL ÁRBOL served as a Catalan police officer for two decades ending in 2012, so one would naturally expect him, as with writers like Joseph Wambaugh, to draw heavily on his intimate knowledge of police work and procedure. “Procedurals” dominate the world of mystery fiction, especially on video. Breathing through the Wound, however, barely has a police officer in it. The main character, Eduardo, is a shell of a man living in Madrid, emotionally gutted by an automobile accident that killed his wife and daughter. He was a highly successful painter at the time but has lost his ambition and inspiration, doing only enough work to keep him in rent, alcohol, drugs, and psychiatry. The novel begins when Gloria Tagger, an extremely wealthy woman, seems oddly interested in his art and through his dealer, Olga, arranges an appointment to discuss a commission. Eduardo isn’t really interested , but Olga is insistent, and he could use the money. When he reluctantly meets with Gloria, the noir thickens. She wants him to paint a portrait of Arthur Fernandez , the man who drunkenly crushed her son against the front of a shop with his Mercedes. He has used his wealth and influence to get an early release. She does not want Eduardo to contact Arthur directly, but rather observe him from a distance, and seems to believe that Eduardo can fully understand and convey onto canvas the inner darkness in Arthur’s soul. This intriguing proposition sets in motion a filigree of twists and discoveries that winds through a variety of unusual characters and nearly seven hundred pages. A novel of this size can be intimidating, as they often lack the pacing and content to justify their heft, but del Árbol fills almost every page with enough intrigue, feeling for the characters, and plot twists to maintain the reader’s engagement . He changes the point-of-view character chapter to chapter. Each significant one gets his or her time on stage, and del Árbol is skillful in making them distinctive and convincing “in their heads.” His characters have complicated motives and histories, keeping the questions of their relationships to one another sufficiently mysterious, yet the revelation of their secret backgrounds and facts is paced out at regular intervals. Arthur’s father was involved in terrorism during the Battle of Algiers. Gloria’s family went through the VÍCTOR DEL ÁRBOL 82 WLT AUTUMN 2020 Philip Metres Shrapnel Maps Port Townsend, Washington. Copper Canyon Press. 2020. 94 pages. PHILIP METRES’S SHRAPNEL MAPS is an impressive work of listening, learning , and journeying into the trauma of others. The book is divided into ten sections and punctuated with images, posters , maps, and historical documents. The poems themselves are an arrangement of forms: erasure poems, simultaneous poems, monologue sonnets, persona poems, and dedications to survivors, friends, poets, witnesses , neighbors . . . the many others who guide the Arab American Philip Metres on his journey of documenting the intertwined Palestinian

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