"In What Happens Is Neither, Angela Narciso Torres has jimmied the lock to a house of intricate family memory and sumptuous wisdom. These are poems of intense reflection and loss, but also of rediscovery and delight. As the years pass and one becomes overwhelmed by what is remembered and all that has been forgotten, such poems might restore the balance that allows us to live with and beyond that loud clanging in the heart."
--Tim Seibles
"Nights, listening to Bach, 'it turned her sadness into something she recognized.' The grace of these eloquent poems is in precisely such recognition. In images drawn from nature ('what the body remembers') and a pitch perfect ear, her lines reach the profound sadness and beauty of human existence, finding speech for what both demands and resists utterance. She writes like the craftsman of her poem whose 'tools, like locusts, peel the tattered layers / that drift like early snow, the wood's deep grain exposed.'"
--Eleanor Wilner
"...Torres's lines read effortlessly no matter their construction, breaking smoothly and fluidly, like the unraveling of memory. This collection succeeds as an altogether tender, arresting exploration of what it means to lose something essential." -- "Publishers Weeker" (4/5/2021 12:00:00 AM)
"...This stunning volume illuminates scenes of domesticity from within like summer lanterns made from mason jars full of fireflies."--Diego Báez "Booklist" (2/24/2021 12:00:00 AM)
Featured in Katherine Ouellette's "10 Books That Will Transport You Anywhere But Here This Winter"--Katherine Ouellette "WBUR" (1/15/2021 12:00:00 AM)