The Last Song of the World - by Joseph Fasano

About the Book

"Joseph Fasano's The Last Song of the World delves into the chaos of the modern world, and searches for resilience in the face of environmental and societal devastation. Dripping with images of ancient ruins and mythological figures, these poems serve as vignettes of fatherhood, love, and desire against the backdrop of apocalyptic events. Through the documentation of ongoing violence and natural phenomena, Fasano depicts the ever-present anxieties of parenting with concision and compassion. The Last Song of the World is a love letter to the world that could be, a world as tender as it is bold, as loving as it is brutal, as beautiful as it is horrendous"--

Book Synopsis

Joseph Fasano's The Last Song of the World delves into the chaos of the modern world, and searches for resilience in the face of environmental and societal devastation. Dripping with images of ancient ruins and mythological figures, these poems serve as vignettes of fatherhood, love, and desire against the backdrop of apocalyptic events.

Through the documentation of ongoing violence and natural phenomena, Fasano depicts the ever-present anxieties of parenting with concision and compassion. The Last Song of the World is a love letter to the world that could be--a world as tender as it is bold, as loving as it is brutal, as beautiful as it is horrendous.

Review Quotes

"Give a copy of Joseph Fasano's The Last Song of the World to someone who loves poetry, then give another copy to someone who says they don't 'get' poetry, someone who thinks of it as a lush garden concealed behind a locked gate. There is no gate here. In writing clearly and evocatively about the human experience, Fasano has invited us all inside." -- Maggie Smith, New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful

"Elemental and eloquent in their quest for heart-truths, Joseph Fasano's lucid, almost-transparent poems have the beauty of a questing imagination, alert and aware on its earnest journey through this world." -- Gregory Orr, author of Poetry as Survival

"Joseph Fasano's poems have always been necessary and full of the world. They are even more so in this new collection, which is for anyone who has ever been in trouble and needed a path to the way out. This is it." -- Alex Dimitrov, author of Love and Other Poems

About the Author

Joseph Fasano is a poet, novelist, and songwriter. His books include The Last Song of the World (2024), The Swallows of Lunetto (2022), The Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing (2020), The Crossing (2018), Vincent (2015), Inheritance (2014), and Fugue for Other Hands (2013). His honors include the Cider Press Review Book Award, the Rattle Poetry Prize, eight Pushcart Prize nominations, and a nomination for the Poets' Prize. His writing has been widely translated and anthologized, most recently in The Forward Book of Poetry 2022 (Faber and Faber). Fasano currently lives in Middletown, NY.