“Through even psychic journeys home, Fangary quarries the oaths we have grown numb to. Hiding from no one, here is a wanderer who has written poems on the film layer of his eyes. In the war and peace of imperialist myth, poems written on behalf of we who don’t exist. And gentle paper for the prayers of our grandmothers’ tongues.”

—Tongo Eisen-Martin, author of the American Book Award winning Heaven Is All Goodbyes

“Antony Fangary has a unique and harrowing American story to tell. His masterstroke as author was to alternate Coptic prayers with personal revelation: “my father was proud of my skin when I was born / my mother says he showed me to everyone in the hospital / a brown man with a son white as an ostrich egg / the American dream // Lord, look with / Merciful eyes / At my weakness / At my disgrace.” This book is the perfect example of the literature we should be reading, to open our eyes to the world and thereby to know ourselves.”

—Paul Hoover, editor of Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology

In his debut collection, Fangary brings unique and examining poems about identity through the lens of family history, religion, and discrimination. At once Coptic Christian and heretic, at once American and Egyptian, Fangary captures scenes in wide-angle and a deep depth-of-field. He is able to write tender lines that lacerate in an original voice. In Haram, you’ll learn about the “two white boys who sold everything from coke to pitbulls / good guys to know when you’re fifteen and alone,” while being reminded to “love the fear [God] gives you / and be thankful for it.”

—Kevin Dublin, author of How to Fall in Love in San Diego