Ambush at Still Lake

A Financial Times Poetry Book of the Year 2024.

Caroline Bird's new poems show us the ambush of real life that occurs in the stillness after the happy ending. This collection explores marriage, lesbian parenthood, addiction and recovery, revealing a recurring dream: a world where mums impale themselves on pogo-sticks, serial killers rattle around in basements, and baby monitors are haunted by someone else's baby.


Through it all, love stays and stays like a stationary rollercoaster that turns out to be the scariest, most thrilling ride in the amusement park. It is bleak, repellent and hilarious in an American Psycho-ish way. Hectic and vivid. For readers of contemporary poetry, LGBTQ+ literature, and those who appreciate dark humor.