Calling a Wolf a Wolf

Kaveh Akbar documents the physical and psychological architecture of alcoholism and the subsequent pursuit of sobriety. The poems trace a history of chemical dependency, framing the body as a site of both wreckage and prayer. Akbar connects the visceral reality of withdrawal and liver failure to the Persian cultural heritage and Islamic imagery of his upbringing. He uses specific metaphors of thirst and predatory hunger to describe how addiction simplifies the world until only the substance remains, eventually pivoting toward the slow, fragile reconstruction of a self in recovery.

Readers interested in the intersection of spiritual faith and clinical illness will find a technical map of how language functions during crisis. Those who study the mechanics of recovery read this collection to see the internal dialogue of craving translated into rigorous verse. The book provides a look at the labor of staying sober while acknowledging the permanent alteration of one's identity. A reader finishes these poems with an understanding of how one survives a collapse of the will and the specific vocabulary required to name their own desires.