About the Book
"Brilliant, powerful, fascinating" ROBERT MACFARLANE, author of Is a River Alive?
"Deeply thoughtful" ROBIN WALL KIMMERER, author of Braiding Sweetgrass
"Captivating and exhilarating" TRISTAN GOOLEY, author of How to Read a Tree
A tree is not just a type of being, it is also a way of being – one that is wildly creative, fantastically resilient, and most of all, deeply rooted...
From bestselling author Robert Moor comes a wondrous journey through the wilds of nature and the gnarls of history, exploring how trees – from the tiniest bonsai to the mightiest sequoia – teach us to grow wise.
One day, on a whim, Robert Moor set out to climb a tree near his home, unwittingly embarking on what would become a decade-long, globe-spanning adventure. Drawing on an astonishing range of thinkers, from cutting-edge scientists to ancient philosophers, Moor explores how trees have shaped human lives for millennia – and how they can guide us into the future.
His hunt for the ‘wisdom of trees’ takes him from the Lake District to Ethiopia, Tanzania, Papua and Japan. He dines with David Attenborough, naps with chimpanzees and risks his life to save an ancient forest. Along the way, Moor investigates some of humanity’s oldest mysteries: What is the secret to growing old well? How do we set down roots in an increasingly chaotic world? And most importantly, how should we – as individuals, as communities, as stewards of the Earth – live?
What begins as an ode to the miracle of trees blossoms into a joyous, daring, fiercely hopeful endeavour to broaden our minds and deepen our connections. To truly grasp the wisdom of a tree, this bold new classic announces, you must learn to think like one.
About the Author :
Robert Moor is an award-winning writer and New York Times bestselling author. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Guardian, Harper’s, the Atlantic and Granta, among others. Moor’s first book, On Trails, won the National Outdoor Book Award, the William Saroyan Prize and the Pacific Northwest Book Award. It was named one of Waterstones’ Best Travel Writing of 2016, the Telegraph’s Best Travel Books of 2016 and the Guardian Bookshop’s Best Nature Writing of 2016. He lives in British Columbia.
Review :
Robert Moor's brilliant In Trees is –– like its subject –– powerfully, fascinatingly arborescent: it branches and roots, gnarls and delves. Moving from sky to earth, Robert Moor unfurls in fine-grained prose the ancient, urgent story of how trees transform us. Reading it, I felt my senses of time, life and process shift in ways I hadn't experienced before. It left me arboresced."
Widely branched and deeply rooted, In Trees is a deeply thoughtful exploration of how we unrooted humans value- and devalue- our arboreal relations. With adventurous journeys, lively storytelling and provocative reflection, Moor invites us along to know charismatic forests through the eyes of other worldviews, encouraging our own Green Revelation to guide us through these urgent times.”
Robert Moor is one of the few I'd trust to bring a fresh perspective to trees and he does not disappoint. By turns earthy and philosophical, what a captivating and exhilarating book!
In In Trees, Robert Moor leads us on a luminous journey into the living forests who gather and sustain us. With deep compassion, empathy and clarity, he reveals a captivating world of intricate connection and intelligence that reshapes how we see trees - and roots our place among them. Wise, profound, and quietly transformative; this is a book I will press into the hands of loved ones
In Trees is an abundant forest of poetry, philosophy, prose, passion and piercing dendrology. Travelling a book with Robert Moor is like paddling a river of tremendous elegance and inspiration. While devouring this genre defying book I frequently went out to climb to the crowns of the giant mother trees in the Celtic rainforest around my home and recapture the spirit of playfulness, youth and connectedness that Robert drenches his work in
Moments of high adventure segue into deeply serious and very moving explorations of the foundational relationship between people and trees. This wide-ranging and enlightening book left me even more sure that renewing this ancient connection will play an essential role in our efforts to shape a better future
Robert Moor is a rare and luminous talent, and In Trees is his best work to date...To read this book is to feel oneself anchored more firmly to the earth and, simultaneously, to become more open to life‘s many branching, wild possibilities.
In Trees is dazzlingly erudite, playful, profound, adventurous and, above all, eloquently, fiercely alive. Full of brilliant, mind-bending insights and wonderful surprises, this is the most life-affirming book I’ve read in a long time
Robert Moor is a writer of extraordinary sensitivity and insight and he has discovered such riches here. In Trees is a wise, moving and ever-branching book that reaches from root to leaf to heartwood, and asks what we might learn from our arboreal neighbours about living well.
In Trees is profound and deepening, written with flair and originality. Everyone should read it – even people who aren’t much into trees
