Finding the Mother Tree

Reviews

*WINNER of the 2021 Banff Mountain Book Prize in Mountain Environment and Natural History*
*WINNER of the National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History Literature*
*WINNER of the 2022 BC and Yukon Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award*
*SHORTLISTED for the 2022 BC and Yukon Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Book Prize*
*SHORTLISTED for the 2021 Science Writers and Communicators of Canada Book Award*
*FINALIST for the 2023 SCWES Book Awards*

INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Praise for Finding the Mother Tree:

One of:
Vogue's "13 Books to Help You Reconnect with Nature"
Electric Lit’s “7 Books by Women Writers About Humanity’s Relationship to Trees”
The Wall Street Journal’s “Five Best Books on Breakthroughs in Biology”

“Simard has spent decades with her hands in the soil, designing experiments and piecing together the remarkable mysteries of forest ecology . . . elegantly detailed . . . deeply personal . . . A testament to Simard’s skill as a science communicator. Her research is clearly defined, the steps of her experiments articulated, her astonishing results explained and the implications laid bare: We ignore the complexity of forests at our peril.”
—The New York Times

“Simard’s memoir describes the intersecting webs of her career and private life that brought her to rewrite not only the forestry canon but our understanding of nature itself. She is an intellectual force whose powerful ideas overshadow her name . . . Like Charles Darwin’s findings, Simard’s results are so revolutionary and controversial that they have quickly worked their way into social theory, urban planning, culture and art. Simard’s work knocked 19th-century notions of inevitable competition off their pedestals. If a forest is a commons where the fate of the weakest is tied to that of the strongest, then we have a lot of rethinking to do.”
—The Washington Post

“Extraordinary.”
—BBC Wildlife Magazine

“[Simard] shares the wisdom of a life of listening to the forest . . . a scientific memoir as gripping as any HBO drama series.”
—The Observer

“A powerful and personal meditation on nature, science and our interconnection with each other and the world around us."
—Toronto Star

“Galvanizing . . . As Simard elucidates her revolutionary experiments, replete with
gorgeous descriptions and moments of fear and wonder, a vision of the forest as an ‘intelligent, perceptive and responsive,’ comes into focus . . . A masterwork of planetary significance.” 
—Booklist (starred review)
 
“Simard artfully blends science with memoir in her eye-opening debut on the ‘startling secrets’ of trees . . . As moving as it is educational, this groundbreaking work entrances.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Simard tells the fascinating story that led Richard Powers to base a character on her in his Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Overstory . . . intimate . . . absorbing . . . engaging . . . the science is solid, and the author’s overarching theme of stewardship is clear, understandable, and necessary.”
—Kirkus

“I can't think of a book on nature and science that I am more eagerly looking forward to reading. Suzanne Simard is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence, and this book promises to change our understanding about what is really going on when a tree falls in the forest, and other pressing mysteries about the natural world.”
—Michael Pollan, New York Times bestselling author of eight books, including The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Botany of Desire

"Vivid and inspiring . . . For Simard, personal experience leads to revelation, and scientific revelation leads to personal insight . . . Finding the Mother Tree helps make sense of a forest of mysteries. It might even persuade you that organisms other than ourselves—even fungi—have agency.”
—The Wall Street Journal

“In Finding the Mother Tree, Suzanne Simard demonstrates how storytelling can ignite something science alone cannot . . . therein lies the magic of this book. This is science in action, from beginning to end, and so much more than a study published in a journal . . . Finding the Mother Tree is the kind of story we need to be telling, a new way of communicating that the world desperately needs to hear. "
—The Guardian

“Vital for our times . . . With biodiversity on a knife edge, the need to appreciate and understand the complexity and brilliance of the natural world could not be more important."
—Financial Times

“Finding the Mother Tree is a rare and moving book - part charming memoir, part crash course in forest ecology. And yet, it manages to be about the things that matter most: the ways we care for each other, fail each other and listen to each other. After the last year and a half, its lessons about motherhood, connection and the natural world are more timely than ever.”
—Jake Gyllenhaal

“[Finding the Mother Tree] excited us with a narrative about the awe-invoking power of nature and the compelling parallels in Suzanne’s personal life. It forever transformed our views of the world and the interconnectivity of our environment. Finding the Mother Tree is not only a deeply beautiful memoir about one woman’s impactful life, it’s also a call to action to protect, understand and connect with the natural world.”
—Amy Adams and Bond Group co-founder Stacy O’Neil

“In [Finding Mother Tree], [Simard] invites us into her world, which is the world of trees. What she has discovered there is revolutionary on both the scientific and the spiritual level. It is so extraordinary that it is, frankly, hard to believe—until you see the data, the science, the rigor, and the many independent affirmations of her findings. . . . The future of this planet depends on our ability to understand Nature and integrate what she is telling us; Simard is one of her most insightful and eloquent translators.”
—John Vaillant, bestselling author and winner of the Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction (Canada) for The Golden Spruce, The Tiger, and Jaguar’s Children

“[Finding the Mother Tree] offers a chance for readers to get to know her more intimately—her insights, her humor, her struggles, her determination. It's an inspiring story of how a child in love with the woods became a world-renowned scientist discovering their secrets—and perhaps saving them in the process.”
—Kristin Ohlson, New York Times  estselling author of six books, including The Soil Will Save Us, Stalking the Divine, Kabul Beauty School, and Life as We Know It
 
“Suzanne Simard's research into the secret, communicative life of North American forests is utterly compelling. No one knows trees, from canopy to root tips, quite like she does.”
—Charlotte Gill, winner of the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize for Eating Dirt and of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for Ladykiller
 
“The science is solid. . . clear, understandable, and necessary."
—Kirkus

“Suzanne Simard elegantly dispels the lingering myth that scientists are unfeeling robots, mindlessly reducing complexity into digestible units of information. She does this effectively by telling the stories of her life, and she shows us how personal experiences can drive discovery and understanding. As a highly respected scientist who has forever changed how people view forests, I can think of no one better suited to bring more humanity into the process of science.”
—JC Cahill, Professor of Plant Ecology at University of Alberta, and author of bestselling University ecology textbook Ecology: Concepts and Applications

“Every once in a while a scientist comes along who can convey complex, technical ideas in a way that is both dazzling and profound. Suzanne Simard is such a one. . . . It is she who came up with the phrase, Wood Wide Web. It introduces new notions of symbiosis and co-evolution, communication and kin, notions that upend our definition of sentience. . . . Finding the Mother Tree taps into [a large] audience, of people moved by the idea that other organisms besides us are conscious, that the planet is a connected ecosystem, that salvation can be found in nature.”
—Eugenia Bone, author of six books, including At Mesa’s Edge, Italian Family Dining, Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms, and Microbia: A Journey into the Unseen World Around You
 
“Dr. Suzanne Simard is a world-leading scientist who has developed a strong, well-recognized research program at UBC. In addition, one of her strengths is communicating her work to a broader audience. She is able to ‘escape from the ivory tower’ and share her passion and scientific results with the general public and laypersons. Her scientific work provides her a great story to share, and I believe the time is ripe for this story.
—Klaus Puettmann, author of A Critique of Silviculture and Managing Forests as Complex Adaptive Systems
 
“In Finding the Mother Tree, pioneering researcher Suzanne Simard describes how her appreciation and understanding of forests developed. She vividly links her childhood experiences in the mountains of British Columbia, her early work in forest management, and her personal hardships to the scientific discoveries that have forever changed the way we view forests. The stories she tells, and the insights she draws from them, will inspire readers and change the way they think about the world around them.
—Catherine Gehring, Professor of Biology at Northern Arizona University
Author of Mycorrhizal Mediation of Soil–Fertility, Structure, and Carbon Storage
 
“Suzanne Simard’s Finding the Mother Tree reminds us that the world is a web of stories, connecting us to one another. Her vivid manuscript carries the stories of trees, fungi, soil and bears—and of a human being listening in on the conversation. The interplay of personal narrative, scientific insights, and the amazing revelations about the life of the forest make a compelling story. . . . I have great admiration for her science and her storytelling alike. These are stories that the world needs to hear.”
—Robin Wall Kimmerer, Director of SUNY-ESF Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, and winner of both the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award for Braiding Sweetgrass and the John Burroughs Medal Award for Gathering Moss

“This book will have profound implications for our human relationships with the natural world. . . . [T]he insights presented by Dr. Simard point towards a complete paradigm shift in the ways we humans interact with forests, trees, and other species. . . . Finding the Mother Tree will be a celebration of this realization, and a key milestone in humanity’s journey towards reconciliation, with Indigenous Peoples and with Nature.”
—Nancy Jean Turner, Professor of Ethnobotany at the University of Victoria, author of four books including Earth’s Blanket, admitted to the Order of British Columbia and winner of Canadian Botanical Association Lawson Medal

“This is a great read. Dr. Simard opens up her heart and soul as she shares her scientific journey.. The book has elements of both E.O. Wilson’s Naturalist, covering his development as a scientist, and Wild by Cheryl Strayed, who pushed through personal issues and found answers in Nature. For anyone who simply enjoys a walk in the woods and wonders what makes the forest work.”
—Thomas R. Horton, Professor, Mycology State University of New York, Syracuse Dept. of Environmental and Forest Biology
 
“To read Finding the Mother Tree is to imagine the view from a 250-foot redwood. The recognition that we’re all connected is one of the great gifts of the memoir. From such a view, it’s possible to feel part of the whole—a feeling we’re only now starting to recognize as our natural state.”
—Los Angeles Times

"Finding the Mother Tree is a passionate and instructive ecological memoir with much good honest dirt under its fingernails. Simard can look at soil the way an art historian looks at an Old Master. . .”
—Geographical (UK)

“Simard creates her own complex network in [Finding the Mother Tree], by weaving the story of [her] discoveries with vignettes from her past. . . . Moving through life’s highs and lows with her is rewarding because of these resonances, and because she comes across as the kind of person who usually doesn’t write memoirs—shy and occasionally fearful, always earnest. It feels like a privilege to be let into her life.”
—Nature magazine

“The moving and remarkable story of one of the greatest ecological discoveries of our time. Writing with humility and passion, Suzanne Simard's unravelling of the secret life of trees is changing the scientific mindset. Finding the Mother Tree is a crucial step towards healing our planet.”
—Isabella Tree, author of Wilding and The Living Goddess

“I loved Finding the Mother Tree. . . .  [Suzanne Simard] was a keen observer who discovered that there are complex interactions between soil fungi and different species of trees. . . . Science will eventually prove that Simard was right.”
—Temple Grandin, The New York Times

“In Finding the Mother Tree, science and personal experience are inextricably linked, as densely interwoven as the underground networks that knit forests together—all of it rendered in elegant and thoughtful prose. Simard’s book is as sturdy, impressive and beautiful as a big red cedar.”
—The Tyee

“Suzanne Simard’s Finding the Mother Tree is a marriage of rigorous science with empathic love and gut instinct. Simard was the woman whose work led to the coining of the phrase wood-wide web. You will never look at a forest in the same way again.”
—The Irish Times

“Few researchers have had the pop culture impact of Suzanne Simard.”
― Scientific American

“Finding the Mother Tree is essential reading. Suzanne Simard is a gentle voice of reason and experience. She has lived this book, not just written down what she has studied from afar. Her experimental life is inspirational. . . . In writing Finding the Mother Tree, Simard shows us that we might become more like trees, that we might survive our own mess-making and brokenness, that we have the innate capacity to become beneficial parts in the whole that is life.”
—Resilience

“[Finding the Mother Tree] is a sweaty, dangerous, and highly unique personal story that has captivated creative minds around the world. . . . [A] gripping memoir.”
―The New Statesman

“[A] compelling read.”
―The Peterborough Examiner

“[I]f you’ve ever read . . . Suzanne Simard’s Finding the Mother Tree, you will never look at trees and forests the same way.”
―The Record

“With this book, you’ll get a whole new appreciation for what trees can do.”
—Book Riot

“[Simard] weaves her life story into the story of her science. . . . [Her] groundbreaking research has inspired many others, not just scientists, but also artists such as director James Cameron and his movie, Avatar.”
—Electric Lit

“Ms. Simard is an engaging storyteller, adroitly interweaving tales of her adventures and research in the deep woods. In the end, she brings scientific support to the idea that all living things are connected.”
—The Wall Street Journal

Praise for Suzanne Simard:

One of TIME's 100 Most Influential People of 2024 Expand reviews