“The Alphabet of Aliens is a book of a marvelous and disturbing experience, of a self’s remorseless, exploratory descent into difficult reality, into ‘a soundless tree-cave reflecting a trapped sun. Nag has created a style that delivers the oft-proclaimed but rarely embraced and expressed fact that the alien is not only a foreigner, an extraterrestrial, but is a symbol, an inner reality, of each of us.” A F Moritz, author of Great Silent Ballad

“The Alphabet of Aliens is full to bursting with ants, blood, tea, winter, dragons, tornadoes, mothers, fathers, lions, crows, beetles. He stops at the Insomnia Motel, The Curry Shop, boards the Spice Train looking for his place in the world. ‘I was a dream,’ he says. ‘Dreams are wishes.’Oh, the dreams that come cascading through the pages of this generous book. There are wonders on every page and crazy delight.” Barbara Hamby, author of Burn

“Quite simply, superb. Nag’s words teleport, transmute, and inject the reader into the emotional psyche of anyone, everyone, who’s ever been an outsider. Both polished and raw, each piece reminds me of a sophisticated, deconstructed meal prepared by a master chef. One who knows better than anyone what works, and how best to present that to showcase judiciously chosen ingredients. This is a book I will reread, and benefit from every time.” Bill Arnott author of A Perfect Day for a Walk and A Perfect Day for a Walk by the Water

“Cold and hot at the same time, The Alphabet of Aliens pushes the reader away and pulls the reader in—forcing uncomfortable intimacy with the old, old learning curve of newness that attends the migrant experience. The phonetic is frenetic in Nag’s worlds within words. It’s playful, and it’s painful.” Chantel Lavoie, author of This Is About Angels, Women, and Men

“The Alphabet of Aliens is a triumph: Songs cast in ecstatic surrealism: You’re betwixt ‘Strawberry Fields’ and ‘Desolation Row,’ in that space where Rilke meets Ferlinghetti. And once there, you won’t want to leave. Promise! Lookit! ‘Last night screams from the epidemic filled the arteries of the harmonica . . . Let’s not say another word. Not today. There’s enough already said in the libraries of the world.” George Elliott Clarke, author of Canticles I-II-III (MMXVI-MMXXIII)

“No gossamer romance, The Alphabet of Aliens often sings against a sky stooping down like a heavy song itself…Stuffed with kaleidoscopic scenes from life and dream, it is an extravagant experiment, as if Kafka were refracted through Dali.” Keith Garebian, theatre scholar, literary critic, and poet

“The beauty and whimsy of The Alphabet of Aliens will pull you into its text; once you’re immersed in this startling and compelling book of poems, the words will get their hooks into your heart and not let go.” Rhea tregebov, author of Talking to Strangers

“Unique voices throughout this collection captures the narrator’s dilemma and makes the reader feel these experiences…Nag is a master of his craft.” Stella Leventoyannis Harvey, author of Finding Callidora

“A triumph of vision, writing, and sustained expression of its subject. Nag’s writing reminds the reader of other great writers of outsider literature, for instance Kafka, Orwell, and even William Burroughs.” Stephen Morrissey, author of Farewell, Darkness: Selected poems

“A collection of haunting, powerful stories by a writer to watch.” Alix Ohlin, Giller-nominated novelist

“A sharp and incisive collection from a compelling new voice in Canadian fiction.” Annabel Lyon, winner of the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize

“A totally engaging experience. We come away from these stories challenged and deepened.” Stephen Morrissey, author of The Green Archetypal Field of Poetry: on poetry, poets, and psyche

“Satisfying is the only way to describe Nag’s collection! These poignant stories, poetic in their detailed descriptions and flawed characters, highlight a life of challenges for those who have and those who have not.” Stella Harvey Author of Finding Callidora, The Brink of Freedom and Nicolai’s Daughters.

“The book maps a strange physics of existence. Reading it in one stretch was like peeking into the chamber of a particle collider. The characters move damagedly in worlds of existential dread.” Ahmad Saidullah, author of Happiness and Other Disorders

“The stories in Hands Like Trees evoke a vivid, often disquieting world. Moving deftly from character to character, Sabyasachi Nag draws us deep inside a tangle of kinship to reveal secrets both guarded and shared. A fresh and fearless collection.” Alissa York, author of Far Cry

Here are characters that are complex, astute, painful, funny, enlightening and most of all enjoyable. Cool and fierce, the power of Sabyasachi Nag’s writing pulses with grace and maturity. A marvellous debut.” John Vigna, author of No Man’s Land

“In reading and re-reading each poem, I found myself lost in the vistas and characters his words paint. The collection is divided in three sections: identity, belonging and death. Much like the life of any human being, or the proverbial Pi, it begins with the id/ego formation, then moves through a life of gathering experiences, connections and some sort of hypothetical meaning, finally arriving at the last milestone of mortality. Just like a man’s existence is itself unexplored, Nag’s poems leave us with questions rather than answers. We are led to myriad moments and places without maps, the territory unknown, a step by step journey that reveals itself only in the moment each step is taken.” Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews author of A Jar of Fireflies

“Reminds me of Ondaatje…it is thought-provoking, artfully told, and gives a unique perspective.” Pat Connors author of The Other Life

“Elegiac in tone, Uncharted never submits to a pessimistic worldview, nor does it fall prey to the dangers of a saccharine display of emotions in response to tragedy. Instead, this collection of engaged and intelligent poems offers a series of odes that deploy laser-sharp precision to bear witness to the overlapping tectonic plates of identity, belonging and death.” Renée M. Sgroi

“The poems in the collection feel dream-like, and paint an image that reflects life for those prepared and brave enough to see.” Stella Harvey, author of Finding Callidora

“A complex and disruptive collection of poems” Debbie Bateman author of Your Body was Made for This.

“Took me on a magical, mystical & metaphysical journey. Beautiful, haunting and surreal. An enlightening read.” Sharif Khan author of Brave Fortune

“Here are…many moments of quieter surprise within. Those surprises range from the alarming (“Cow skinners, / corpse beaters, / rag pickers, / rat killers”) to the delightful (“A white-throated sparrow /springs onto the edge of my bed — drifts into the dream”). The content, too, roams widely, even within a single poem, catching in its butterfly net specimens of the quotidian, like “fresh-cut tulips in a vase” that “held the lemon sun,” as well as more metaphysical quarry, like “How time moves, / why religion fails.” Uncharted does the admirable work of combing familiar territory and emerging with some bright new stones.” Jade Wallace