Publisher Description
In this wholly original book, biologist David Haskell uses a one-square-meter patch of old-growth Tennessee forest as a window into the entire natural world. Visiting it almost daily for one year to trace nature's path through the seasons, he brings the forest and its inhabitants to vivid life.
Each of this book's short chapters begins with a simple observation: a salamander scuttling across the leaf litter; the first blossom of spring wildflowers. From these, Haskell spins a brilliant web of biology and ecology, explaining the science that binds together the tiniest microbes and the largest mammals and describing the ecosystems that have cycled for thousands—sometimes millions—of years. Each visit to the forest presents a nature story in miniature as Haskell elegantly teases out the intricate relationships that order the creatures and plants that call it home.
Written with remarkable grace and empathy, The Forest Unseen is a grand tour of nature in all its profundity. Haskell is a perfect guide into the world that exists beneath our feet and beyond our backyards.
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An extraordinary, intimate view of life. . . . Exceptional observations of the biological world.
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Kirkus Starred Review
About David George Haskell
David Haskell is an author whose work integrates scientific, literary, and contemplative studies of the natural world. His 2017 book The Songs of Trees won the John Burroughs Medal for Outstanding Nature Writing. His 2012 book The Forest Unseen was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and won the 2013 Best Book Award from the National Academies, the National Outdoor Book Award, and the Reed Environmental Writing Award. He is a professor of biology and environmental studies at the University of the South and a Guggenheim Fellow.
About Michael Healy
Michael Healy has appeared off Broadway and on
national television, most notably on Saturday Night Live for
three years, as well as in several national commercials. He continues to hone
his craft in Rhode Island, where he has won awards for acting. His audiobook
recordings include Mr. Midshipman Easy by Frederick
Marryat, The Collector of Lost Things by Jeremy Page,
and The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.