Ruin is one of the first poetry collections in the world to explore the epic tragedy of the Iraq War (2003 - 20??). Using four distinctive voices, and constructed almost as a thriller, Roberta Lowing's 55 poems re-create the devastating invasion and years of betrayal and heart-break -- and moments of hope and illumination -- endured by Iraqi civilians and American soldiers. Ruin pays tribute to the Twentieth Century's greatest humanist poets and resonates with the influences of Neruda, Levertov, Celan and more. This work is of our time for our time, a collection which expresses the anxieties and aspirations of all those who resist the dark forces shaking our world.