The Revolver in the Hive takes place in the aftermath of tragedy, where grief is recognizable but contorted into unsettling forms. In this remarkable debut, Nicolas Hundley's poems chronicle with honesty--and often bitter humor--a harrowing journey through loss, death, and mourning. A widow "hauls a sack filled with the limbs of statues," and mourners become "familiar as a pet is familiar, returning years later, / stitched up from experimentation."

Juxtaposing such incongruous images, Hundley creates uncanny worlds in which antiquated objects and characters coexist with those from a...