Limber

Book excerpt: “As the author reveals in these charming essays, nature is imbued with enticing mysteries, and trees can be agents of salvation.” —Kirkus Reviews Angela Pelster’s startling essay collection charts the world’s history through its trees: through roots in the ground, rings across wood, and inevitable decay. These sharp and tender essays move from her childhood in rural Canada surrounded by skinny poplar trees in her backyard to a desert in Niger, where the Loneliest Tree in the World once grew. A squirrel’s decomposing body below a towering maple prompts a discussion of the science of rot, as well as a metaphor for the ways in which nature programs us to consume ourselves. Beautiful and deeply thoughtful, Limber valiantly asks what it means to sustain life on this planet we’ve inherited. “One of the quirkiest and most original books about the natural world that I have read in quite some time . . . the essays reveal not just the life of trees but how they connect us to the greater world around us.” —Seattle Times “Whether Pelster is talking about an old mining town buried alive, a tree that belonged only to itself, or a mother buried with her children in the desert, her prose invites the reader to pause and wonder . . . Pelster questions our mortality, how we define ourselves, and faith; and has fun doing so.” —Publishers Weekly “What a strange and unexpected treasure chest this is . . . Who is this Angela Pelster and where has she been all our lives?” —Lawrence Weschler