You Still Look the Same
A moving collection of poetry about navigating mid-life, full of humour and wit, from acclaimed novelist Farzana Doctor.
This debut poetry collection from acclaimed novelist Farzana Doctor is both an intimate deep dive and a humorous glance at the tumultuous decade of her forties. Through crisp and vivid language, Doctor explores mid-life breakups and dating, female genital cutting, imprints of racism and misogyny, and the oddness of sex and love, and urges us to take a second look at the ways in which human relationships are never what we expect them to be.
Published by Freehand Press, 2022.
SONNET L’ABBE author of Sonnet’s Shakespeare
“These poems are clean, tight, wry, luscious, kvetchy and up-close-to-brown-skin.”
Kim Fahner, reviewer, ARC
“In our 40s and 50s, perhaps, there is the almost requisite tendency to look back—to childhood, to trauma, to wounding—that comes with age and life experience, with perhaps having more years behind us than are still ahead. The poems reflect on love, aging, death, divorce, and even the difficulty of online dating in the twenty-first century. Throughout it all, the speaker’s voice yearns for human connection, but also for the certainty of finding and knowing oneself in a time of great transformation.”
Natalie Hanna, reviewer, Canthius
“You Still Look the Same is an elegant and mighty achievement. It is irresistibly relatable, juxtaposing everyday experiences against remarkable and painful moments. Reading this book, one feels that despite what the years have wrought on the body and soul, we can still strive to hold on to the relationships that have built us, while re-examining their impact and redefining their meaning to us as we age.” Read the full review here.