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Table of Contents
About The Book
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 adventure of intellectual and spiritual transformation.
Pursuing the hidden wisdom of trees, he digs through forgotten archives, scales to the top of a giant sequoia with Sir David Attenborough, trudges through swamps in Papua to reach a treehouse-dwelling tribe of hunter-gatherers, and travels to a remote research camp in Tanzania, where he spends one very uncomfortable night sleeping in a chimpanzee nest. Galvanized by a radical new outlook on both our gnarled past and our ever-branching future, he ultimately falls in with a ragtag clan of climate activists risking everything to halt construction of an oil pipeline and save an old-growth forest.
Along the way, Moor learns the art of “treethinking,” 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 roots in an increasingly chaotic world? Can we ever learn to pursue our future in the farsighted, deeply entangled manner of an ancient forest?
A witty, relentlessly curious excursion through philosophy, history, and science, what begins as an ode to the miracle of trees blossoms into a joyous, daring, and fiercely hopeful effort to “arborize humanity.”
Appearances
In Person
FESTIVAL - Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts
Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts
In Person
FESTIVAL - Kingston Writers Festival
Kingston Writers Festival
Product Details
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster (April 7, 2026)
- Length: 384 pages
- ISBN13: 9781476739281
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Raves and Reviews
“Gorgeous, honest, and soulful.”
—Bryan Stevenson, New York Times bestselling author of Just Mercy
“Daring, inspired, and wide-ranging, 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
“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?
“A new book in that rare category of ‘classic upon publication.’”
—Bill McKibben, New York Times bestselling author of Here Comes the Sun
“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, National Book Award finalist for Fire Weather
“With adventurous journeys, lively storytelling, and provocative reflection, Moor invites us to know charismatic forests through the eyes of other worldviews in order to guide us through these urgent times.”
—Robin Wall Kimmerer, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Serviceberry
“A profound and loving, shrewd and funny pilgrimage in which trees are living things but also verbs and ways of life. Moor finds so much beauty, and so much historical rubbish to clear away, in this bold, wild search to understand how he should live.”
—Larissa MacFarquhar, award-winning author of Strangers Drowning
“Robert Moor is an erudite and delightfully meandering writer (see his On Trails for what I mean) who invariably chooses the more interesting of two possible narrative paths…. From giant sequoias to the tree-houses of Papuan tribesmen to an actual chimpanzee nest, Moor makes his way to the tops of trees everywhere, the better to find some perspective.”
—Jonny Diamond, Literary Hub
“Brilliantly written, supremely intelligent, and philosophically provocative.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Moor’s nature writing is beautiful and refreshingly original.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
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Book Cover Image (jpg): In Trees
eBook 9781476739281
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Author Photo (jpg): Robert Moor Photograph by Remi Morawski(0.1 MB)
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