Presents an exploration of the extremes of the human condition, tackling issues of civil strife and tyranny, reconciliation and the renewal of the spirit.

Ellen Hinsey's third collection, Update on the Descent is a powerful meditation on violence, war and human division. Drawing on personal and family experiences - including the murder of her grandmother - as well as research at the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague, Update on the Descent is the companion volume to The White Fire of Time, a sequence of poetic works that explore the nature of terror as well as the sacred. Dynamically and innovatively written in lyrical and anti-lyrical forms, including prose and aphorism, Update on the Descent is a masterwork, an exploration of the extremes of the human condition, tackling issues of civil strife and tyranny, reconciliation and the renewal of the spirit.