Braiding Sweetgrass

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a botanist with indigenous heritage, and she writes about the natural world with such fresh insight and joy that it's hard to see the world in the same way after having seen it through her eyes.<br><br> The pecan grove in the old family home in Oklahoma; the abundance of wild strawberries where she grew up and which first shaped her view of the natural world where 'gifts are simply scattered at your feet'; the gathering of sweetgrass for basket-making, 'a gift is always left in return'; the adventure of making maple syrup on Maple Sugar Moon day; and the lesson of the Three Sisters – corn, beans and squash – the traditional Native American planting companions. Through observations and stories, Kimmerer describes a relationship with the living world that blends Native American teaching and the objectivity of science. Kindness and respect, gratitude for abundancy but restraint in the taking, lie at the heart of this quietly revolutionary book, a gentle medicine to heal the planet.<br><br> Anagh Banerjee's sublime woodcuts capture perfectly the essence of this highly unusual book, and an introduction by the author offers her observations since the book's first publication.