It's a very personal collection inspired by Hirshhorn's move back to the USA after having divided his time between London and Beirut for quite a few years. Moving to a new place puts things into a new perspective and makes one aware of passing time and can lead to a form of alienation. Themes like these play a role in the first set of poems. In 1944, the Hirschhorn family emigrated from England to the USA, to an apartment in New York. The very personal poems in the 853 Riverside Drive section reflect on this event from the father's, mother's and son's point of view with a lament about the sister who never made it to New York. Aspects of being in exile are being explored in the third section drawing on Hirschhorn's roots in the Middle East and Finland. This section also features a few poems by his friend Fouad M Fouad, an exile from Aleppo, co-translated from the Arabic. The last section puts everything in a wider perspective based on what's gone before, different spiritual experiences and memory.