In Trees

From the acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller On Trails comes a wondrous new journey through the wilds of nature and the gnarls of history, exploring how trees—from the mightiest sequoia to the tiniest bonsai—can teach us to grow wise.

To truly grasp the wisdom of a tree, you need to begin thinking like one…

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 of intellectual and spiritual transformation. Pursuing the hidden wisdom of trees, he scales to the very top of a giant sequoia while filming a nature documentary with David Attenborough; he treks through swamps in Papua to reach a treehouse-dwelling tribe of hunter-gatherers; and he journeys to a remote research camp in Tanzania, where he spends a memorable night sleeping in a chimpanzee nest, seeking to understand our deep evolutionary history. Eventually, having gained a radical new outlook on both our gnarled past and our ever-branching future, he joins an intrepid clan of climate activists risking everything to halt construction of a new oil pipeline and save an ancient forest.

Along the way, Moor learns the art of “tree-thinking,” which, he discovers, has the power to break open some of humanity’s oldest questions: What is the secret to truly growing old? How do we set down deeper roots in an increasingly chaotic world? Most importantly, how should we—as individuals, as communities, as stewards of the earth—live?

A witty and relentlessly curious excursion through philosophy, history, and science, what begins as an ode to the miracle of trees blossoms into a joyous, daring, fiercely hopeful endeavor to arborize humanity.

Praise for In Trees

“Moor’s nature writing is beautiful and refreshingly original.”— Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Brilliantly written, supremely intelligent, and philosophically provocative.” — Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“An affecting and occasionally revelatory effort to, as Moor puts it, arborize humanity. For ecologists, activists, land stewards, and forest lovers.” — Library Journal

“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.”— John Vaillant, bestselling author of Fire Weather and The Tiger

“Robert Moor’s brilliant In Trees is — like its subject — powerfully, fascinatingly arborescent. Moving from sky to earth, 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.”— Robert Macfarlane, New York Times bestselling author of Is a River Alive?

“Daring, inspired, and erudite, this is much more than a book about trees. 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.”— Ferris Jabr, New York Times bestselling author of Becoming Earth

“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.”— Robin Wall Kimmerer, New York Times bestselling author of The Serviceberry

“A profound and loving, shrewd and funny pilgrimage. Moor finds so much beauty in this bold, wild search to understand how he should live.”— Larissa MacFarquhar, New York Times bestselling author of Strangers Drowning

“A new book in that rare category of ‘classic upon publication.’”— Bill McKibben, New York Times bestselling author of Here Comes the Sun

“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.” — Helen Jukes, author of A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings

“In Trees is profound and deepening, written with flair and originality. Everyone should read it – even people who aren’t much into trees.” — Jini Reddy, author of Wanderland: A Search for Magic in the Landscape

“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.” — Sophie Pavelle, Wainwright-longlisted author

Hailed by The Wall Street Journal as a “philosopher on foot,” Robert Moor is the bestselling author of On Trails and In Trees. Translated into more than a dozen languages, On Trails garnered the National Outdoor Book Award, the Pacific Northwest Book Award, and the William Saroyan International Prize. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, New York magazine, Outside, Emergence, and n+1, among other publications. He lives in Halfmoon Bay, British Columbia.