Hands Like Trees

An act of passion reverberates across continents when Visma Sen, a retired army officer, decides to remain in Calcutta when his family migrates to Canada.

Sabyasachi Nag evokes the rising heat of Calcutta in the early morning as masterfully as he depicts the calmness of a snow-lit evening street in Brampton, Ontario while the entangled lives of the Sens of Shulut unfurl over three decades. Each linked story is told through the voice of a different member of the Sen family, from Nilroy’ s movingly excruciating first day as caregiver to Aunt Rita with dementia to Milli’ s ambition to host her guru Mata G. The experiences of each character draw a portrait of the Sen family, whose wounds drive them to pursue an ever-elusive happiness, while clearly yearning for identity and belonging.