The Heartbeat of Trees

Embracing Our Ancient Bond with Forests and Nature

Peter Wohlleben , Trans. Jane Billinghurst

New Hardback

Postscript summary

In the modern industrialized world, we bewail our disconnection from nature while continuing to destroy it. Peter Wohlleben argues in this hopeful, uplifting book that it does not have to be that way. Drawing on the latest scientific discoveries he demonstrates how time spent among trees can sharpen our senses, calm our minds and strengthen our immune systems, and explores the pharmacopeia of natural remedies to be found in forests.

Product information

Full publisher description

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Trees

A powerful return to the forest, where trees have heartbeats and roots are like brains that extend underground. Where the color green calms us, and the forest sharpens our senses.

In The Heartbeat of Trees, renowned forester Peter Wohlleben draws on new scientific discoveries to show how humans are deeply connected to the natural world. In an era of cell phone addiction, climate change, and urban life, many of us fear we've lost our connection to nature-but Peter Wohlleben is convinced that age-old ties linking humans to the forest remain alive and intact.

Drawing on science and cutting-edge research, The Heartbeat of Trees reveals the profound interactions humans can have with nature, exploring:

the language of the forest
the consciousness of plants
and the eroding boundary between flora and fauna.

A perfect book to take with you into the woods, The Heartbeat of Trees shares how to see, feel, smell, hear, and even taste the forest.

Peter Wohlleben, renowned for his ability to write about trees in an engaging and moving way, reveals a wondrous cosmos where humans are a part of nature, and where conservation and environmental activism is not just about saving trees-it's about saving ourselves, too.

Praise for The Heartbeat of Trees

"As human beings, we're desperate to feel that we're not alone in the universe. And yet we are surrounded by an ongoing conversation that we can sense if, as Peter Wohlleben so movingly prescribes, we listen to the heartbeat of all life." -Richard Louv, author of Our Wild Calling and Last Child in the Woods

"Astonishment after astonishment-that is the great gift of The Heartbeat of Trees. It is both a celebration of the wonders of trees, and a howl of outrage at how recklessly we profane them." -Kathleen Dean Moore, author of Earth's Wild Music

"As Peter Wohlleben reminds us in The Heartbeat of Trees, trees are the vocabulary of nature as forests are the brainbank of a living planet. This was the codex of the ancient world, and it must be the fine focus of our future." -Dr. Diana Beresford-Kroeger, author of To Speak for the Trees and The Global Forest

"Peter Wohlleben knows the battle that lies before us: forging a closer relationship with nature before we destroy it. In The Heartbeat of Trees he takes us deep into the global forest to show us how."-Jim Robbins, author of The Man Who Planted Trees

Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute.

Reasons to shop at Postscript