Charlotte Ansell's territory, from her debut in 2002, has been the heart. In Amittere, the heart is stripped to its connections - parent to child in poems such as Navigation and Poiesis; between friends and siblings in Dandelions and Twins; and to place. Beyond that she excavates how the body that holds a heart, perceived through lenses of race, gender, wealth or power, affects the troubles the heart carries. Ansell's years working as a child and adolescent psychotherapist come to the fore in this latest book, the dilemmas of the young people who have passed through the doors of her service reflecting the contemporary world and its many fascinating fusions and fractures. Amittere is the human story delivered in a spirit of tenderness, curiosity and occasional despair, but always underpinned by an unrelenting thread of hope.
