What Drori does in this book is take the reader around the world, starting in London and heading south-east through Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. Our trip is from tree to tree – 80 of them in all. For Drori “…the most satisfying tree stories are the ones in which a piece of plant science has surprising human ramifications.” And indeed, this book is chock full of the most interesting tree anecdotes you’re likely to read. Take the Alder – in the presence of air the wood rots quickly, but submerged, the chemicals in its cells enables the wood to resist decay for decades. The city of Venice is virtually built upon Alder, with some of those timbers sunk over 700 years ago still doing the job.

Some of these trees you may be well familiar with – Elm, Spruce, Birch, and the aforementioned Alder – others less so – Kapik, Mopane, Durian, and Yaupon. Even for the familiar trees, Driori’s stories are informative, instructive, and plain amusing to read.

This is a very readable book. You can begin your trip in London or jump in anywhere along the route. The tree stories are short – between 1 and 5 pages, including illustrations. Drori blends information about tree biology and human/tree anthropology – the interaction between humans and trees. Drori only profiles 80 trees – considering that there are some 60,0000 unique tree species worldwide, imagine the countless other stores waiting to be told!