Squandered Advice

Squandered Advice is the only poetry collection by Ilse Aichinger (1921-2016), an Austrian writer who belonged to Gruppe 47, the group that set out to renew German-language literature after World War II. Her career spanned every genre, and this book, which gathers poems written over several decades, is presented here in English for the first time.

Her voice stays remarkably consistent throughout. Poems often address the reader or a third party, frequently in the imperative, and many take the form of a question. All are in free verse, yet they are tightly built, often around sound or repetition, in spare language. Phrases are fragmentary, cut off, and set side by side like a collage. The images are isolated and haunting, sometimes everyday and sometimes surreal, evoking dreams or memories. The tone moves from gentle and reassuring to disjointed and disturbing.

Aichinger arranged the book carefully into a unified whole that follows its own poetic logic rather than chronology. It has inspired poets in the German-speaking world for decades and is now available to English readers.