Book Review: They Gather Around Me, The Animals by Kunjana Parashar
1 min read
Kabir Deb reviews Kunjana Parashar’s They Gather Around Me, The Animals (NFSPS Press, 2025), calling it the ripple effect of the unnoticed.
- Publisher: National Federation of State Poetry Societies (NFSPS)
- Pages: 87
In dystopian fiction, writers break limits to give us reality checks and a voice that represents not only mankind but also those who live around it. A similar scenario grows in fantasy fiction as well, where unimaginable moments sprout through stories and minds. But why is it so necessary? Sumana Roy’s How I Became a Tree has an answer to this question. The book establishes symbiosis by maintaining a oneness between the speaker and the subjects (trees basically). Roy establishes a connection between every moment of her life and the cycle trees follow. It becomes necessary to give a voice to something that observes us while we are unaware of it. In her debut poetry collection, They Gather Around Me, The Animals, Kunjana Parashar gives space and voice to her own conscience and the animals that are making her think. It is an animal farm, but its dystopian images do not make us sad. Rather, they make us visit the personal moments animals never share.
