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William Collins scoops Wohlleben's 'love letter to the forest'
William Collins has scooped How Trees Can Save the World, the sequel to The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben, translated by Jane Billinghurst. Publishing director Myles Archibald acquired UK paperback and audio rights from Rob Sanders, c.e.o. of Greystone Books.
Working in partnership, Greystone Books will publish the hardcover edition in Canada, the US, and the UK on 20th April 2023 with William Collins simultaneously releasing the audio edition read by Mike Grady to be followed by the paperback in the UK in 2024. William Collins previously partnered with Greystone Books on paperback rights for The Hidden Life of Trees in the UK.
Described as a “love letter to the forest,” the publisher said: “How Trees Can Save the World is as fascinating and eye-opening as it is trenchant in its critique: on the one hand, Wohlleben describes astonishing discoveries about how trees pass knowledge down to succeeding generations; on the other, he is unsparing in his criticism of those who wield economic and political power – who plant trees exclusively for the sake of logging and virtue signalling – even as they ruthlessly exploit nature.”
Archibald commented: “In his latest book, Wohlleben is dismissive of token gestures in terms of tree planting. Just as, in his first book, he compared forest trees to ‘families’ and urban trees to ‘street urchins’, in How Trees Can Save the World he uses equally powerful metaphors to compare tree planting to battery farming. However, he also describes trees’ determination to survive, describing seedlings breaking through the earth where you least expect them as ‘stalwart tree children’."
Wohlleben is one of the world’s most notable foresters and a passionate advocate for tree conservation. He manages an “ecologically conscious” forest in Germany, and runs an academy for education and advocacy. He will be in the UK from 22nd to 24th April to launch the hardback at the Cambridge Literary Festival and at The Linnean Society in London.
