The Whole Singing Ocean (2020)
"Lush, clear-eyed, insightful - a luminous poem." - Eleanor Wachtel, host of CBC's Writers and Company
"The Whole Singing Ocean is a narrative poem of immensities rising from the deep - whales, microplastics, acoustic smog, grief, rapture, abuse. This book does the deep and winding work, the honest and sometimes horrifying, always courageous work of healing. Like the long lines of whale songs, Moore's polyvocal, lyric tale arrives in "pulses and pings of rhythm / rapturous and piercing at once." Where the glittering eye of the Ancient Mariner holds the Wedding-Guest rapt, this tale issues from the massive eye of a whale. This is a gorgeous book." - Erin Robinsong, author of Rag Cosmology
Sparked by the eye of a whale, The Whole Singing Ocean plunges us into memory, magic, ecological grief and the true story of a boat school.
Part long poem, part investigation, the book explores the affair of the École en bateau, a French countercultural school. The École was inspired by the ideals of ’68 and the theories of Foucault, promising adventure and freedom from the hierarchies of everyday life. One of the aims on board was to abolish the separation between adults and children. As more troubling details are uncovered, Moore’s poetic inquiry is nudged along by an irreverent voice, foil to the narrator’s lyricism, and ultimately leads her toward echoes and traces in her own life and family history.
Dreams and transgression, sailor slang and the sacred, binaries and song underscore this book. At the heart of The Whole Singing Ocean is the question, How is it possible to hold two very different things—rapture and pain—at once?
Everything, now
“Everything, now is a powerful journey through love and loss – serving, ultimately, to unsettle any notion of a boundary between them. A gripping, personal narrative marked by sharp poetic language and insight often of a startling beauty, this is no ordinary book. The honesty and bravery of Moore's voice will remain with you long after the last page is turned.” —Johanna Skibsrud
“Everything, now – part lyric, part memoir – confronts the brutality of loss and resurrects a life by means of deeply felt narrative and vividly rendered images. Jessica Moore has constructed a moving testament to a much-loved partner and, by extension, to all those who have died far too soon.”
—Jane Urquhart
"This is poetry at its most primal, spiritual and souled. Everything, now is just this. Everything. Now." — Shannon Webb-Campbell, The Telegraph-Journal
"The poems are outstanding feats of imagination, such as the view of a tree seen from below the earth [...] (“Seasons”). Brilliant images undercut the pessimistic chaos expected of such tragedy." -- Matrix, 2013
A top twelve poetry book of 2012 in Salty Ink.
“Everything, now – part lyric, part memoir – confronts the brutality of loss and resurrects a life by means of deeply felt narrative and vividly rendered images. Jessica Moore has constructed a moving testament to a much-loved partner and, by extension, to all those who have died far too soon.”
—Jane Urquhart
"This is poetry at its most primal, spiritual and souled. Everything, now is just this. Everything. Now." — Shannon Webb-Campbell, The Telegraph-Journal
"The poems are outstanding feats of imagination, such as the view of a tree seen from below the earth [...] (“Seasons”). Brilliant images undercut the pessimistic chaos expected of such tragedy." -- Matrix, 2013
A top twelve poetry book of 2012 in Salty Ink.
Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal, translated by Jessica Moore
Mend the Living by Maylis de Kerangal, translated by Jessica Moore
WINNER OF THE 2017 WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE
NOMINATED FOR THE 2016 INTERNATIONAL MAN BOOKER PRIZE
“From its glorious 300-word first sentence to the stately canopic imagery of its climactic scenes, Mend the Living, beautifully translated from the French by Jessica Moore, mimics the rhythm of the processes it depicts – the troughs and peaks of grief and protocol, of skills utilised and acceptance finally achieved.”
– The Guardian
“Ably translated by Jessica Moore … long sentences wind across the page, taking in philosophical digressions … De Kerangal’s intellectual flights are balanced out by detailed descriptions of the donation process itself: the various diagnoses, the necessary conversations with the donor’s grieving family, the hasty delivery of the organs in their chilled containers. Throughout, the author handles this difficult subject with enormous subtlety and tact.”
– The Independent
“Jessica Moore’s deft, exacting, and nuanced translation brilliantly writes de Kerangal’s magnificent prose into a new English. A deeply compelling and moving read.”
– Oana Avasilichioaei, author of Limbinal
NOMINATED FOR THE 2016 INTERNATIONAL MAN BOOKER PRIZE
“From its glorious 300-word first sentence to the stately canopic imagery of its climactic scenes, Mend the Living, beautifully translated from the French by Jessica Moore, mimics the rhythm of the processes it depicts – the troughs and peaks of grief and protocol, of skills utilised and acceptance finally achieved.”
– The Guardian
“Ably translated by Jessica Moore … long sentences wind across the page, taking in philosophical digressions … De Kerangal’s intellectual flights are balanced out by detailed descriptions of the donation process itself: the various diagnoses, the necessary conversations with the donor’s grieving family, the hasty delivery of the organs in their chilled containers. Throughout, the author handles this difficult subject with enormous subtlety and tact.”
– The Independent
“Jessica Moore’s deft, exacting, and nuanced translation brilliantly writes de Kerangal’s magnificent prose into a new English. A deeply compelling and moving read.”
– Oana Avasilichioaei, author of Limbinal
“Jessica Moore’s deft, exacting, and nuanced translation brilliantly writes de Kerangal’s magnificent prose into a new English. A deeply compelling and moving read.”
– Oana Avasilichioaei, author ofLimbinal
French original Maylis de Kerangal’s fifth novel, which takes its title from a line of dialogue in Chekhov’s Platonov, consolidates the audacity displayed in Birth of a Bridge (2010), which was published last year in an excellent translation also by Canadian poet and song writer Jessica Moore. Mend the Living examines the emotive subject of organ donation. Yet for all the ethics and pragmatism involved, de Kerangal avoids polemic and never loses sight of the humanity."
- The Irish Times
– Oana Avasilichioaei, author ofLimbinal
French original Maylis de Kerangal’s fifth novel, which takes its title from a line of dialogue in Chekhov’s Platonov, consolidates the audacity displayed in Birth of a Bridge (2010), which was published last year in an excellent translation also by Canadian poet and song writer Jessica Moore. Mend the Living examines the emotive subject of organ donation. Yet for all the ethics and pragmatism involved, de Kerangal avoids polemic and never loses sight of the humanity."
- The Irish Times
The Greats by Sylvain Prudhomme, translated by Jessica Moore
“The chronicle of a success story, a story of love and friendship set against the backdrop of a coup d’état, Les grands is also a beautifully written book. Vibrant and smooth, each line pulls us into an avalanche of sensations…. A sumptuous stroll through an Africa on the verge of a rebirth” --Les Inrockuptibles
“A magnificent ode to music, love, and friendship…. This book will change you.” --Lire
“It’s a coup. A wild success.” --l’Express
“Jessica Moore’s splendid translation captures the rhythm of Prudhomme’s heart-felt homage to Guinea-Bissau, the vivid detail of his night stroll through the country’s shifting music scene, its ruthless, recurring, political upheavals and its ongoing fight for independence.” –Martha Baillie, author of If Clara and The Search for Heinrich Schlögel
Birth of a Bridge by Maylis de Kerangal, translated by Jessica Moore
“Ms. de Kerangal’s writing is always exuberant (and boisterously translated by Jessica Moore) … This delightful book’s unabashed idealism, combined with those playfully literary proper names, marks it as a kind of aspirational fairy tale. … Ms. de Kerangal gives us a Tocquevillian picture of America from its most flattering angle: An enterprising, melting-pot democracy driven by dreams of progress and happy to get its hands dirty…”
– Wall Street Journal
“The whole narrative unfolds in a dreamlike manner, and Moore’s translation is elegant and sensitively attuned to the author’s wordplay and neologisms.”
– Kirkus Reviews
“a modern saga chronicling the construction of a colossal bridge. … there is … lyricism and beauty to be found through each character’s obsessive outlook on the land and the bridge. Moore stays true to de Kerangal’s unique prose, which flows from the mythic to the mundane. Her translation is clear and unadorned. The story told through its varied cast of characters, alternating from the grandiose to the intimate, is one that will stay with readers long after the book is closed and the bridge is built.”
– Publishers’ Weekly
Turkana Boy (poetic novel) by Jean-François Beauchemin, translated by Jessica Moore
The story of a single character's wonderings and wanderings after the unexplained disappearance of his twelve-year-old son. This book is punctuated with surreal questions and images. Jessica's translation has been praised by the author as being "un très beau travail... plus beau en anglais qu'en français." ("very beautiful work... even more beautiful in English than in French").
Jessica's translation of Turkana Boy, among other life events, has also inspired her own collection of poetry Everything, now (2012).
Connect with Jessica on her Goodreads page.
