Review in "Time Out"

Behind the Mask: A Folded Heart
Laala Kashef Alghata

Prolific author Laala Kashef Alghata releases her second book, the follow-up to successful novel Friendship in Knots. The Bahraini writer opts for a poetry and prose collection this time, delving into her vast pool of material to put together Behind the Mask. It's a remarkable collection, crammed with a mixture of upbeat, introspective, sombre and celebratory poems about life, love, work and everything in the middle. Each piece feels painstakingly crafted, distilled down to its purest essence. Emotions range from the contemplative - 'Welcome to Limbo. We're all dead in this city' - in City of Limbo to the optimistic - 'Live, breathe, and forget how to curse, for a mere moment' in Just This Moment. Of course, it is not possible to scratch the surface of the variety and depth of this collection in just two extracts, by far the best way to convey such a message is to urge you to track down a copy of the collection for yourself. Each word feels like it has been tried and tested, selected only because it expresses the exact message of the author. Such attention to detail results in a truly remarkable collection, doubly impressive given Laala was 16 when it was published. Her work belies her youth and reveals a maturity of language that is a pleasure to experience.

It's a great review, I'm really happy with it.