‘From the moment of opening The Ledger of Fruitful Exchange we know we are in the company of a real poet.’
—Aisling Maguire, Metre
Peter Sirr’s fourth collection, The Ledger of Fruitful Exchange, is a series of transactions between people and places, departures and arrivals.
The first section explores notions of home and homelessness in the lives of voyagers, residents, tourists, and adventurers, including medieval Jewish travelers and Irish glassmakers. Part two, ‘A Journal’, an extended meditation on desire and difference, charts the history of a love affair.
This wide range of voices, in their varied historical and geographical settings, combines to make this Peter Sirr’s most opulent book to date.
A marvelous fourth volume, where he really makes an enormous psychic jump. Here you have the culmination of all his technical expertise, which he had been developing in his previous volumes, but this time cum corde, with a great infusion of heart.
— Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, The Irish Times
‘The Ledger of Fruitful Exchange marks a great leap forward, placing him at the forefront of the younger poets in these islands . . . Sirr’s best work marries considerable linguistic talents with a real sense of loss, producing work that is, in the widest sense of the word, erotic.’
— Brian Lynch, The Irish Times
