Time's Fool: A Tale in Verse

Time's Fool tells the tale of Edmund Lea, a young man condemned to eternity alone until he determines how to lift the curse upon him. Edmund perpetually rides a phantom train -- except on Christmas Eve every seven years, when he is allowed to revisit his English hometown. He tries to break the spell by way of love, repentance, and death -- all in vain. Time passes, from 1970 to 2019, but Edmund remains seventeen, unable to age but watching the world grow older. Infused with a dark humor and an almost unbearable nostalgia, Time's Fool is a brilliant achievement, "classic yet hip, stylized yet inventive" (Scotsman).

"Glyn Maxwell has learned to do what all good poets do -- he makes a world fresh again, a world you never knew existed." --William Logan, NEW CRITERION

“Maxwell has the dramatist’s skill to set his characters in motion and orchestrate them . . . and the poet’s knack for rhythmical pathos.”

Guardian

“Beautiful and moving and authentic poetry can be written today; and we know this not least because Glyn Maxwell is writing it."

New Republic