The Coming Thing is a brilliant long narrative poem. It is not Evanss first: she has become celebrated for work on this scale, spoken, dramatic, abundant. She has been justly acclaimed by, among others, Colm Toibin. He says of her inimitable narrative style, Slowly, a poem that seems animated by random thoughts and images takes on a strange, concentrated power; the lines begin to feel like pure style, the narrative voice holding and wielding the hidden energies that Martina Evans consolidates, and then releases with such energy and confidence and verve. Imelda, the books central character, is immersed in challenging new worlds where old customs still somehow survive. It is the 1980s and the poem takes shape among punks in Cork City. The coming thing refers to the arrival of computers which were taking hold and beginning to effect their transformations of data and then of lives; but ultimately the title identifies the abortion which Imelda will have in a Brixton clinic. Imelda, who Evanss regular readers will recall from her earlier narrative Petrol (2012), narrates the story with a light touch, even when the books preoccupation with abortion, suicide and euthanasia provides a strong and compelling undertow. The Coming Thing looks hard at the duplicity surrounding received ideas about the sacredness of human life and how economic change runs counter to the values of old Ireland.
Martina Evans is an Irish poet and novelist and the author of twelve books of prose and poetry. She grew up in County Cork and trained in Dublin as a radiographer before moving to London in 1988 where she still lives. She has won several awards including the Premio Ciampi International Prize for Poetry in 2011 and the Pigott Poetry Prize in 2022. She is a Royal Literary Fund Advisory Fellow and reviews for the Irish Times.
• Previous collection American Mules won the Pigott Poetry Prize 2022 and was a TLS and Sunday Independent Book of the Year 2021
• The Coming Thing is a brilliant long narrative spoken by Imelda, who Evans’s regular readers will recall from her earlier narrative Petrol (2012)
• Set in the 1980s and taking shape among punks in Cork City, the ‘coming thing’ refers to both the transformative arrival of computers and more importantly the abortion which Imelda will have in a Brixton clinic
• Looks hard at the sacredness of human life and how economic change runs counter to the values of ‘old’ Ireland, touching (not without irony) on abortion, suicide and euthanasia
