Sumana Roy, 'How I Became a Tree'

How I Became a Tree (2017) is a profoundly introspective meditation on the intersection of human existence and the natural world, wherein the author interweaves poetic sensibilities with a critique of modernity.Through an intricate narrative structure, Roy formulates what may be construed as a didactic project for environmental education, foregrounding an experiential re-engagement with the non-human realm.Her writing does not proffer definitive conclusions but instead fosters an intellectual and affective openness, evoking what Joan Retallack terms a 'self-imposed resistance to closure' (Retallack 2003: 13) thereby engendering a sustained engagement with the philosophical, ethical and phenomenological dimensions of ecological consciousness.Modernity has engendered an epistemic rupture between human cognition and ecological awareness, severing the sensory and intellectual bonds that once tethered us to the natural world.Roy's book emerges from this very rupture, as she embarks upon an introspective journey to document what she terms her 'spiritual and emotional transformation into a tree' (p.26), a process through which she interrogates the ontological and ethical stakes of arboreal existence.This transformation is not to be understood in a literal sense but rather as a metaphorical elevation of human consciousness to the