The Distance of a Shout
Selected Poems
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3 Months Free + £10 Audible voucher
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Offer ends on 5 July 2026 at 11:59 BST.
The Distance of a Shout
Narrated by:
Michael Ondaatje
Buy Now for £24.99
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Narrated by:
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Michael Ondaatje
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By:
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Michael Ondaatje
A one-of-a-kind collection gathering fifty years of poetry by one of our most cherished authors.
In The Distance of a Shout, Michael Ondaatje has assembled some of his finest poems into a singular poetic memoir that invokes the arc of his own journey over fifty years.
Through poems that grow out of his profound understanding of how we lose and find ourselves, Michael Ondaatje navigates his own past, beginning with memories of his childhood in Sri Lanka and his eccentric family, to his life in rural southern Ontario with its beloved rivers, celebrations of treasured friends, the close ties of children. We follow him through the exhilarations of youth and into that “storm of music,” the passionate swerves of longing and desire, until we reach the calm of that moment when, with “only a cloud’s reflection holding you up, You swim into late afternoon.”
The Distance of a Shout offers us a glimpse into the interwoven life and art of one of our most cherished poets and novelists—and is itself a reminder of the power of poetry to shine a light on living.
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Critic reviews
One of Literary Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2026
"Ondaatje presents a superb and comprehensive collection of selected works, or 'condensary of time,' that crystallizes for devotees and new readers alike the poet’s lifelong devotion to place. . . . Readers will revel in this astonishing volume."
—Publishers Weekly (STARRED REVIEW)
"Michael Ondaatje remains our very best poet-turned-novelist. . . . With this collection Ondaatje has selected poems from his life in something like a chronological order; from the elation of early loves to the exquisite intensities of fatherhood to the somber meditations of aging, he has created a beautiful memoir in verse, a lasting document of a life lived in wonder and honesty."
—Literary Hub
"This is a life's work and a book to hold close."
—Madeline Thien, Giller Prize-winning author of Do Not Say We Have Nothing
"Ondaatje has this unique vocabulary—not in the sense of expanse but surprising juxtaposition. . . . Written with such tenderness, lightness. . . . Ondaatje’s inimitable voice continually moves towards a minute, instructive gentleness."
—The Monthly
"Ondaatje presents a superb and comprehensive collection of selected works, or 'condensary of time,' that crystallizes for devotees and new readers alike the poet’s lifelong devotion to place. . . . Readers will revel in this astonishing volume."
—Publishers Weekly (STARRED REVIEW)
"Michael Ondaatje remains our very best poet-turned-novelist. . . . With this collection Ondaatje has selected poems from his life in something like a chronological order; from the elation of early loves to the exquisite intensities of fatherhood to the somber meditations of aging, he has created a beautiful memoir in verse, a lasting document of a life lived in wonder and honesty."
—Literary Hub
"This is a life's work and a book to hold close."
—Madeline Thien, Giller Prize-winning author of Do Not Say We Have Nothing
"Ondaatje has this unique vocabulary—not in the sense of expanse but surprising juxtaposition. . . . Written with such tenderness, lightness. . . . Ondaatje’s inimitable voice continually moves towards a minute, instructive gentleness."
—The Monthly
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