Combining pressing geopolitical urgency with a subtle and gentle lyricism, as we have come to expect from Gerry Loose, his new book ranges wide, broad and deep, to settle back home in the Scotland re-inhabited by Sweeney the king, deranged and fleeing humanity, and a lilting nine day walk from coast to coast across Scotland’s heartland.With narratives from Nuremberg, which contrast city and individual citizens with its long and terrible past, and then stories of an island life – not as insular as might be imagined – in a Finland where anything or nothing may happen, with or without a Luger pistol, this book has a quiet insistence on personal experience.A unique take on the naming of endangered species here could be seen as a metaphor for what the ordinary people in these pages – and their would-be leaders – might in turn become.Expressive, formally inventive, Loose’s seventh full collection night exposures lives right into its title: shining light into murky and overlooked corners which some might wish to be kept in the dark.
