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The Songs of Trees

By: David George Haskell
Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, David George Haskell
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Publisher's Summary

The author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Forest Unseen visits with nature's most magnificent networkers...trees.

David Haskell's award-winning The Forest Unseen won acclaim for eloquent writing and deep engagement with the natural world. Now Haskell brings his powers of observation to the biological networks that surround all species, including humans.

Haskell repeatedly visits a dozen trees around the world, exploring the trees' connections with webs of fungi, bacterial communities, cooperative and destructive animals and other plants. An Amazonian ceibo tree reveals the rich ecological turmoil of the tropical forest along with threats from expanding oil fields. Thousands of miles away, the roots of a balsam fir in Canada survive in poor soil only with the help of fungal partners. These links are nearly two billion years old: the fir's roots cling to rocks containing fossils of the first networked cells.

By unearthing charcoal left by Ice Age humans and petrified redwoods in the Rocky Mountains, Haskell shows how the Earth's climate has emerged from exchanges among trees, soil communities, and the atmosphere. Now humans have transformed these networks, powering our societies with wood, tending some forests but destroying others. Haskell also attends to trees in places where humans seem to have subdued 'nature': a pear tree on a Manhattan sidewalk, an olive tree in Jerusalem, a Japanese bonsai demonstrating that wildness permeates every location.

Every living being is not only sustained by biological connections but is made from these relationships. Haskell shows that this networked view of life enriches our understanding of biology, human nature, and ethics. When we listen to trees, nature's great connectors, we learn how to inhabit the relationships that give life its source, substance, and beauty.

©2017 David George Haskell (P)2017 Audible, Ltd

Critic Reviews

"Haskell thinks like a biologist, writes like a poet, and gives the natural world the kind of open-minded attention one expects from a Zen monk rather than a hypothesis-driven scientist." ( The New York Times)

What listeners say about The Songs of Trees

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Less about trees, more about gender and ethnicity

Thought this was going to be about trees, turned out to be a lecture about why being white is bad, especially if you're male. Most of the facts in this book are of questionable reliability.

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Soulful

A book that gradually grabs your inner being and appreciation of nature. Never look at nature in isolation.

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Beautiful.

Great content. George is a poet. His beautiful descriptions takes you to places. Reminder of the magical, perfectness of Mother Nature. I listened while 'doing stuff'. Easily to 'not hear' what was said. Found myself rewinding. The narrator is lovely but very monotone. Would be great to listen while chilling out.

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The Magic of Life

The magnificence of nature transformed in beautiful words and given voice by a magical orator. A beautiful book.

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Just Beautiful....

The Song of Trees has sung its song so beautifully....
Thank You for enriching my life and understanding of our Beautiful Planet!!!

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.