Mouth
Mona Arshi’s third collection is published by Chatto, Penguin in July 2025.
'Quick before the story ebbs away.
There are things I need to tell you'
A work of great strength and equal delicacy, Mouth transports us to a world where violence hangs in the air, where beauty, pity and cruelty intertwine. The sequence at its heart, Palace, takes the overlooked women from the edges of Greek tragedy and places them centre stage, to tell unforgettable stories of survival and loss. With new depth and force, their voices set off echoes with women navigating the terrible reality and aftermath of war today.
As a human rights lawyer, Arshi saw power and its abuses, the structures of silencing set against refugees. As a poet, she charts the movements and migrations that change the course of our lives – from child to adult, from home to elsewhere, from grief to what lies beyond.
Mouth is a complex and original study of speaking’s limitations, chasms in communication, but also the unexpected power of silence: 'sometimes / language picks us clean'.
Where to purchase
Debut Novel: Somebody Loves You
Mona Arshi's Debut novel "Somebody Loves You" was published in November 2021.
Somebody Loves You Reviews
- 'Somebody Loves You is reminiscent at first of an old home movie shot on Super 8 film, the colours saturated but barely in focus . . . This is the camerawork of memory in action, what childhood recollection chooses to emphasise . . . For Ruby, speech is an inadequate mechanism for self-presentation . . . this is a book about silence as a subversive act of care.' Stephanie Sy-Quia, The Guardian
- 'Prismatically gorgeous: a fluent construction, and deconstruction, of words.' Cal Revely-Calder, Sunday Telegraph
- 'Although this is a novel that is powerfully aware of the potency of words, it's executed with admirable delicacy.' Stephanie Cross, The Daily Mail
- 'Timeless . . . warmly written and warmly recommended.' Rupa Huq MP, The House
- 'The chapters, like Ruby, are concise, never rambling, but they contain startling depth . . . Each scene is packed with emotion and memory, and it’s all carried by the diction and imagery of a poem. It adds up to a beautiful whole.' Publishers Weekly
- 'Mona Arshi has crafted a delightful, gentle debut novel full of warmth and subtle humour. To quote one of Ruby’s father's favourite aphorisms: a beautiful thing is never perfect. But I would counter that Somebody Loves You probably is.’ New Internationalist
- 'An unforgettable portrait of a young girl struggling to connect.' The Tablet
- 'Amid . . . anecdotes spanning years of life in a handful of pages lies a tale that will sit with readers long after its final page.' Heather McDaid, The Skinny
- 'In the best writing, what goes unsaid is often as important as what gets said, and there’s a lot left unsaid in Mona Arshi’s debut novel Somebody Loves You . . . her prose is pared to the bone, and she has a keen eye for detail, as well as a knack for memorable imagery.' Joshua Rees, Buzz Magazine
Where to purchase
Second collection: Dear Big Gods
Mona Arshi's second collection 'Dear Big Gods' was publised in April 2019 and available to order from Liverpool University Press.
Dear Big Gods Reviews
- London Grip Poetry Review – Norbert Hirschhorn is seriously impressed by Mona Arshi’s new collection
- The Guardian - The best recent poetry – review roundup
- Edmund Prestwich - Review
Where to purchase
First collection: Small Hands
Small Hands Reviews
- Dave Poems: Mona Arshi – Small Hands
- The Huffington Post - Small Matters of Life-Enhancing Poetry
- Words Unlimited
- Good Reads
- Dundee University Review of the Arts
- The Manchester Review: Mona Arshi, Small Hands