The Road to Emmaus

A thought-provoking sequence of narrative poems exploring faith, love, and loss, from an acclaimed new voice in American poetry.
Spencer Reece's mesmerizing collection, The Road to Emmaus, fearlessly confronts love and its loss, despair and its consolation, and faith in all of its various guises. Drawing on the biblical story of two heartbroken strangers who encounter the recently crucified Christ on the road to Emmaus, Reece weaves compelling dramas out of small moments.
At the heart of this collection is a middle-aged man who becomes an Episcopal priest, and these poems follow him from New York City to Honduras, from a hospital where he works as a chaplain to a prison and an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. With language of simple, lyrical beauty, Reece explores the yearning for connection, the ache of loneliness, and the fleeting nature of love.
Longlisted for the National Book Award, The Road to Emmaus is a subtly moving and thought-provoking exploration of the human condition from a sharp new poetic voice in twenty-first century American poetry.