Bose writes with lyrical brio and flashes of humor about his efforts to persuade the tree to testify about itself and his search for whether there is a measuring rod for the state of being alive.Harpers Magazine
Now that plant intelligence is an established field of study, [ Boses ideas] seem prescient.Andrew Robinson, Nature
J. C. Bose was a true polymath, whose science was propelled by reason and passion. In this wonderful collection of essaysfirst published in Bengali a hundred years agohe persuasively represents plants as living beings, bearing witness to their emotional life, their memories of the stimuli they receive and the injuries they suffer. In Sumana Roys elegant translation, Boses arguments remain fresh, vivid, and compelling to those reading his book in English today.Ramachandra Guha, author of Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism
Sumana Roys The Man Who Made Plants Write is a fine introduction to the literary oeuvre of the scientist who pioneered the study of plant sentience.Amitav Ghosh, author of Wild Fictions: Essays on Literature, Empire, and the Environment
In these pages, we glimpse the possibility of a science with heart and souland receive a powerful inspiration to take the Bengali intellectual and cultural world of the turn of the last century with new seriousness.Matthew Battles, Harvard University
This collection exposes readers across the globe to the visionary originality and breadth of Boses thought.Amit Baishya, University of Oklahoma
An exceptionally readable page-turner.Jayson Maurice Porter, University of Maryland, College Park