Heinrich Detering once referred to him as a "serene wizard of everyday life." Indeed, in the poems of Lars Gustafsson, the ordinary becomes extraordinary, the inanimate comes to life, and the abstract becomes concrete: iron yearns to become rust, and books begin to converse with one another. A plane can remember: "Beneath the surface of things lies nothing but the surface of things. As long as something remains of the things, it is surface. Nothing else." The new collection featuring the best poems from recent years showcases the contemporary poet from Sweden at the height of his mastery.