The music rips the skein of being. The ghost is proudly silent. A triumph of difference. Discordant and defiant. Maxim D. Shrayer’s voice speaks across generations. With a stubborn belief that poetry must be healing, Shrayer writes poems that break through boundaries and fears, accept defeat, and yearn for pleasure. – David Biespiel , author of A Self-Portrait in the Year of the High Commission on Love The memories [Shrayer] carries burn in carefully crafted verses as if to contain his furies and his love. … These are poems to savor and to learn. – Rodger Kamenetz , author of The Missing Jew: Poems 1976-2022 Maxim D. Shrayer’s Zion Square is a book of unabashed loyalties, outspoken in its political commitments, at moments bitingly satiric, at others, tender. – Natania Rosenfeld , author of The Blue Bed These haunted poems movingly try to make sense of our current world that is, Shrayer passionately reminds us, seeped in tragedy. – Yerra Sugarman , author of Aunt Bird Maxim D. Shrayer is a bilingual author and a professor at Boston College. He was born in Moscow and emigrated in 1987. His recent books include A Russian Immigrant: Three Novellas ; Immigrant Baggage , a memoir; and Kinship , a poetry collection. Shrayer’s works have been translated into thirteen languages. Maxim D. Shrayer is a bilingual author and a professor at Boston College. He was born in Moscow and emigrated in 1987. His recent books include A Russian Immigrant: Three Novellas; Immigrant Baggage, a memoir; and Kinship, a poetry collection. Shrayer's works have been translated into thirteen languages.