Idra Novey Books in Order

Novey’s poems explore travel, political history, memory, and intimate relationships through shifting landscapes and unexpected images. Familiar places give way to imaginative encounters, tracing how movement between countries and states of mind changes the experience of belonging.

Two sequences of poems examine translation through letters to Brazilian novelist Clarice Lispector and reflections on language, visitors, and a newborn child. Erica Baum’s accompanying artwork places books and images in conversation with Novey’s explorations of reading and hospitality.

When Brazilian novelist Beatriz Yagoda vanishes after climbing a tree, her American translator Emma flies to Rio to search for her. Joining Yagoda’s children, Emma encounters debts, a demanding loan shark, and revelations that challenge her understanding of the writer.

On an island recovering from dictatorship, Lena suspects a powerful senator from her activist past after a young woman dies. Revisiting his violence against her, she weighs the consequences of speaking out in a country divided by its political history.

Leah returns to Appalachia after her estranged stepmother Jean dies. Discovering enormous welded sculptures and a young man who shared Jean’s final years, she confronts the creative life and unexpected relationships that developed during their long separation.