Coloured Handprints introduces 20 contemporary German-speaking poets, from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, to an English-language readership. Edited by Anatoly Kudryavitsky, and translated from the German by Kudryavitsky and Yulia Kudryavitskaya the volume explores the reunified Germany, sometimes from the vantage point of "the train halted in the middle of the track" ('hamburg - berlin', by Jan Wagner), as it also reveals a modern Europe of "administrative chaos draped in / Brussels lace" ('Ach, Europa', by Nora Bossong). More than anything, however, it asserts the power of poetry to balance dissent, fierce emotion and calm observation in forms that draw on the past but speak to the present and the future. Poets included: Michael AUGUSTIN (G.), Nora BOSSONG (G), Manfred CHOBOT (A.), Daniela DANZ (G.), Ludwig FELS (G./A.

), Brigitte FUCHS (S.), Durs GRUNBEIN (G.), Anne HAGEMANN (G.), Ulla HAHN (G.), Felix Philipp INGOLD (S.), Mathias JESCHKE (G.), Uwe KOLBE (G.), Anton G.

LEITNER (G.), Sabina NAEF (S.), Anne RABE (G.), Ilma RAKUSA (S.), Robert SCHINDEL (A.), Peter TURRINI (A.), Jan WAGNER (G.) and Eva Christina ZELLER (G.

). (G=GERMANY; A=AUSTRIA; S=SWITZERLAND).