RaveThe Literary Review... A one-of-a-kind book unlike anything I have read ... The meta-narrative speaks poignantly to me in 2019 surrounded by stories and images of war and violence from all around the globe ... I have read poetry books that have a narrative thread, but none as captivating as Kaminsky’s ... Yes, the book tells a story of the violence of war. Its victims. But the deaths in this book, poem by poem, are also triumphs of the human spirit against tyranny. And before they die they experience beauty and bring beauty to the world. And even in the bombed out ruins of the city there is astonishment ... Let me be clear, his book is an astonishing imaginative project. Each poem, its own complete vehicle, chassis and body, but each poem part of a larger narrative ... The narrative is compelling in this book but the lyric moments give it its lasting impact ... I am left at the end of Deaf Republic deeply challenged ... Thank you, Ilya, for helping me hear more, see more, feel more.