I have long been a massive fan of Warsan Shire's extraordinarily gifted poetry. Her exquisite, memorable and finely-tuned poems articulate a depth of experience that never fails to surprise and profoundly move me, as she so powerfully gives voice to the unspoken

An incredible collection

Shire invokes the creative powers of the writer to transform one's past... Vital, moving and courageous, this is a debut not to be missed

It is absolutely astonishing how much emotion, intelligence, imagination, and truth Warsan Shire can get into one collection. She is a poet of the highest order, with a compassionate heart, and a limitless mind

Must-read poetry from the superstar Somali-British writer Warsan Shire

Warsan Shire... explores trauma, womanhood and migration so magnificently that even Beyoncé has quoted her

I read Warsan Shire's eagerly awaited debut poetry collection, Bless the Daughter Raised By a Voice in Her Head, greedily, in one giant gulp. It surpassed my expectations, and shortly after I turned the final page of this collection, I wanted more

Shire's strikingly beautiful imagery leverages the specificity of her own womanhood, love life, tussles with mental health, grief, family history, and stories from the Somali diaspora, to make them reverberate universally... Enthralling... The poetry in Bless the Daughter soothes, even while it picks at the scabs of the wounds that cause trauma

Powerful metaphors characterise Warsan Shire's Bless the Daughter Raised By a Voice in Her Head, a book of blessings, of ecstasy through trauma, in particular the trauma of the refugee

Poetry is a sure-fire way to change your mental landscape and this long-awaited collection from the Somali-British poet/Beyoncé collaborator combines poems about war and migration with celebrations of joy

At the heart of this book is Shire's compassion and celebration of human life

This sort of poetry fills the hole in our culture left by preaching. It's topical... Shire speaks of racism, misogyny and life as a refugee... Her imagery is striking

Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head is full of ferocious love and truth. It is not overstatement to say Shire writes the way Nina Simone sang

Heartbreaking, full-bodied, and luscious. Although they encompass complex themes, the poems are lucid and utterly magically alive, it's almost like the book is a person!

Warsan Shire is an expert sculptor. She molds words into clay, her poems into statues-each one a wonder that I return to, in reverence. Because in every line, every curve is an invitation to see differently what has been deemed ugly or difficult. This book is the art gallery I've yearned to visit

Read these candid and revelatory poems to wrap your arms tight around the certainty of your own fracture, to acknowledge the many places and many ways your body has succumbed to violation and only fitfully healed. Read them to know your whole muscled self as a vessel for grief, and to bask in the stuttered lyric of its story. Beauty is maddeningly elusive, but it does exist. It's here in these lines, bursting brilliant, reshaping the story

Her poems are alchemical; I promise if you read a poem of hers you might levitate, at the very least you will be changed

Shire's electrifying poems have the resonance of instant classics... Shire raises up in dignity the lives of immigrants, mothers and daughters, Black women and teenage girls... This is poetry that has the power to create empathy, a quality which often seems lacking in these turbulent times

A very contemporary mix of deep tenderness and caustic humour

A celebration of Black womanhood, joy, diaspora and beyond.

With many of its poems famous in wider culture, it delivers an emotional intensity no less captivating for being familiar

This collection is a gut-punching series of poems that has haunted me ever since I first read it. I am so excited to see what Warsan Shire does next

[A] stunning debut collection... her words speak to women's experiences worldwide

Deft and graceful, French Braid is utterly convincing. Fifty-eight years since she published her first novel, Tyler continues to capture life's joys, contradictions and ordinary heartbreaks with humour and precision

Tyler pulls off the rare feat of presenting her characters both as they see themselves and as others see them

A warm-hearted exploration of the foibles and dynamics of family life

read her for the eccentric characters, the pitch-perfect dialogue, the humour and the tiny ordinary moments so exquisitely described they bring tears to your eyes

A warm-hearted exploration of the foibles and dynamics of family life

Tyler is a superb observer of family life... Heartbreak is deftly layered over a vibrant portrayal of the city, its codes and nuances

Anne Tyler is a wonderful storyteller and French Braid is another classic... Funny but hearthbreaking, too. I loved every single page

Anne Tyler's genius lies in her ability to make this unremarkable family so enthralling

Tyler is a genius at telling big stories with small details and this is an engrossing, fascinating family portrait

Gentle and comforting, but with a hidden core of desperate, cloying sadness, and is vintage Tyler

An astute, well-observed and compulsively readable saga

I adore her [Tyler] books. She’s written 24 novels and I’ve read every single one. She’s 81 and yet French Braid, her latest, is one of her very best