"It came one day, fully, by itself, without prodding, urging, even without thought: Does the river know the rower's gone? Does the rower know the river is still here?"
[Seymour Shubin, Why Me?]

In a writing career spanning over six decades, Seymour Shubin focussed almost exclusively on fictional and crime stories. Whilst such crime classics as Anyone's My Name and The Man From Yesterday featured Shubin-like alter-egos, these forty poems marked his first truly autobiographical work.

Why Me? is by turns touching, funny and thought-provoking as Shubin looks back at his childhood in the Great Depression, the nature of loss and the shadow of death that looms over us all.

This highly personal collection of poems - and Seymour's last book - is introduced by MSP editor Steve Hussy, who says: "Why Me? communicates complex ideas with simplicity, honesty and skill. And, as a result, it's yet another form of writing that Seymour Shubin has mastered."