Twelve Trees

"""In Twelve Trees, Daniel Lewis travels the world to meet a dozen unique specimens with the aim to learn more about how trees live and communicate--and what their connected lives might tell us about how we live ours. Brimming with awe for the overstory, the book is also a reminder that life unlike our own is not only mysterious--it's precious."" --LitHub ""Enchanting . . . The plentiful trivia fascinates, and Lewis has a talent for complicating conventional wisdom. . . . The result is a loving paean to all things arboreal."" --Publishers Weekly ""Rarely have I read a book that so seamlessly interweaves science and sensibility. If you are interested in trees, you will love this book. If you are not interested in trees, this book will show you why you should be."" --Naomi Oreskes, coauthor of Merchants of Doubt and The Big Myth ""Daniel Lewis, author of The Feathery Tribe, could not have chosen a group of trees more biologically and culturally fascinating than this variously endangered dozen. . . . He offers a meticulous survey of these species, as well as their personal histories and importance. . . . He deals with the complexities of conservation efforts (and resistance to them) with an even hand, and the book is as rigorous as it is readable. . . . A well-informed, staunch defense of trees' capacity to multiply biodiversity and support life on Earth."" --Kirkus Reviews ""Daniel Lewis channels the wisdom of twelve of the planet's most eloquent teachers--the oldest, the tallest, and even the extinct--to share their deep time lessons with us. With the precision of a scientist, the skill of a historian, and the voice of a poet, Lewis speaks for the trees. If we listen, we will grow to love these twelve trees deeply, and come to recognize how closely our own lives and fates are linked to theirs."" --Melanie Choukas-Bradley, Author of City of Trees and A Year in Rock Creek Park ""As Daniel Lewis elegantly illustrates, trees are basic material and precious resource; refugees and invaders; recorders, victims, and perhaps solvers of the changing climate. In every case, Lewis argues, they are a mirror back on humanity and its often fraught relationship with the wider world."" --Zachary St. George, author of The Journeys of Trees ""Twelve Trees is a remarkable adventure that takes us from the heights of the redwood canopy to the craters of Easter Island and the depths of the Congo Basin, using cutting-edge science and personal stories to explain the ways these incredible trees shape our world."" --Eric Rutkow, author of American Canopy ""This highly readable and informative celebration of trees stands out in the forest of books about them. 'No tree is an island, ' declares the author, backing this up by exploring the infinite interactions of a dozen well-chosen trees in the web of life in earth which connects all living things. In an era of rapid environmental change, we and the trees share the same future and must face our fate together. The perspectives and wisdom offered here will inspire greater respect, not just for trees, but for all of nature."" --Stephen Blackmore, His Majesty's Botanist in Scotland, author of How Plants Work Praise for Belonging on an Island: Birds, Extinction and Evolution in Hawai'i ""The appalling story of the extinction of so many species of Hawaiian birds has been told, but a book devoted to the beauty of the birds themselves is a welcome event. Belonging on an Island will be both an elegy and an important record of what has been lost to us all."" --W. S. Merwin, former U.S. Poet Laureate ""With insight, humor, scholarship, and love, Daniel Lewis illustrates how and why the question of who or what 'belongs' somewhere is both deceptively complex and increasingly important in today's Anthropocene world."" --Robert J. Cabin, author of Restoring Paradise: Rethinking and Rebuilding Nature in Hawai'i ""The long and tragic history of the ecological transformation of Hawaii is presented in this book, and Daniel Lewis makes it readable, balanced, and thought-provoking."" --David Sibley, author of The Sibley Guide to Birds ""I doubt there is another book that covers the subject of the extinct and endangered birds of Hawaii so completely. The depth of research is impressive and reflects, in part, Lewis' affection for the region."" --Joel Greenberg, author of A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction"