Nelly Sachs, poet and playwright, was born in Berlin in 1891. Her first poems were published in 1929. In 1940 she and her mother fled to Sweden, where she was granted nationality in 1952. Her correspondence with Paul Celan began in 1954. In 1966 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. She died in 1970.; Andrew Shanks is a now retired Church of England priest; for ten years Canon Theologian at Manchester Cathedral. He has published numerous works of philosophical theology; including for instance '"What Is Truth?" Towards a Theological Poetics' (2001), and most recently 'Sublime Virtue: "Sainthood", as Rendered Problematic by a Dozen Novelists' (2023). Having first discovered the poetry of Nelly Sachs forty years ago, in a bookshop in Marburg, he has been steadily at work on his translations/imitations pretty much ever since.

'It is a demanding, astonishing body of work, that bears witness to the trauma of the Holocaust and its aftermath, as well as to the resilience of the spirit infused with a personalised Judaeo-Christian theology.'The Tablet

Nelly Sachs, poet and playwright, was born in Berlin in 1891. Her first poems were published in 1929. In 1940 she and her mother fled to Sweden, where she was granted nationality in 1952. Her correspondence with Paul Celan began in 1954. In 1966 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. She died in 1970.; Andrew Shanks is a now retired Church of England priest; for ten years Canon Theologian at Manchester Cathedral. He has published numerous works of philosophical theology; including for instance '"What Is Truth?" Towards a Theological Poetics' (2001), and most recently 'Sublime Virtue: "Sainthood", as Rendered Problematic by a Dozen Novelists' (2023). Having first discovered the poetry of Nelly Sachs forty years ago, in a bookshop in Marburg, he has been steadily at work on his translations/imitations pretty much ever since.

'It is a demanding, astonishing body of work, that bears witness to the trauma of the Holocaust and its aftermath, as well as to the resilience of the spirit infused with a personalised Judaeo-Christian theology.'The Tablet