In poems that travel from the horrific flight of a World War II pilot to the World Trade Center attack, from the death of JFK Jr. to the poet's own bastard birth, Ai conjures purity as a distant memory and the knowledge of evil as an infinite dark night. An undoubtedly powerful personae.--Publishers Weekly Ai's cleansing soliloquies give voice to pain both personal and communal....[Dread] presents her most masterfully unnerving works to date.--Booklist Dread has the characteristic moral strength that makes Ai a necessary poet.--The New York Times Book Review