The sharp bite of nostalgia, the wars we fight against others and against ourselves, and the gentle heartbreaks and joys that sneak up on us with each passing year: these are the ingredients of life, and the heart of A Hundred-Year Wind.

In these pages we encounter Donald, who experiences a fresh slap of isolation when he returns to school after the loss of his family: "By association, / Fate of an ordinary day, / Might go horribly wrong again." And Elva Lea, who "Recalled the long journey / That began in a tiny bungalow scarcely a hundred miles away, / A place where eight...