THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

‘A scientific memoir as gripping as any HBO drama series’ Kate Kellaway, Observer

A dazzling scientific detective story from the ecologist who first discovered the hidden language of trees

No one has done more to transform our understanding of trees than the world-renowned scientist Suzanne Simard. Now she shares the secrets of a lifetime spent uncovering startling truths about trees: their cooperation, healing capacity, memory, wisdom and sentience.

Raised in the forests of British Columbia, where her family has lived for generations, Professor Simard did not set out to be a scientist. She was working in the forest service when she first discovered how trees communicate underground through an immense web of fungi, at the centre of which lie the Mother Trees: the mysterious, powerful entities that nurture their kin and sustain the forest.

Though her ground-breaking findings were initially dismissed and even ridiculed, they are now firmly supported by the data. As her remarkable journey shows us, science is not a realm apart from ordinary life, but deeply connected with our humanity.

In Finding the Mother Tree, she reveals how the complex cycle of forest life – on which we rely for our existence – offers profound lessons about resilience and kinship, and must be preserved before it’s too late.

‘A beautifully readable reminder of how much of our urgent, collective history resounds in places all around us that have been hidden in plain sight.’ Afua Hirsch, author of Brit(ish)

‘A beautifully readable reminder of how much of our urgent, collective history resounds in places all around us that have been hidden in plain sight’ Afua Hirsch, author of Brit(ish)

Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks – those that are honest about the past and those that are not – that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping a nation’s collective history, and our own.

It’s the story of Thomas Jefferson’s plantation, where he wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving more than four hundred people, the story of the maximum-security prison in Louisiana that is filled with Black men who work across the land for virtually no pay and the story of Blandford Cemetery, the final resting place of tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers.

Chosen by President Obama, the Economist, Time magazine and many more as a book of the year, How the Word is Passed is a deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery – crucially showing some of our most essential stories are hidden in plain sight.

‘We need this book’ Ibram X. Kendi

‘An extraordinary contribution to the way we understand ourselves’ The New York Times

‘Vivid and visceral, making history present and real’ NPR

‘An intimate, active exploration of how we’re still constructing and distorting our history’ Washington Post

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVOURITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR
A NUMBER ONE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NON-FICTION

‘A beautifully readable reminder of how much of our urgent, collective history resounds in places all around us that have been hidden in plain sight.’ Afua Hirsch, author of Brit(ish)

Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks – those that are honest about the past and those that are not – which offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping a nation’s collective history, and our own.

It is the story of the Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving more than four hundred people. It is the story of the Whitney Plantation, one of the only former plantations devoted to preserving the experience of the enslaved people whose lives and work sustained it. It is the story of Angola, a former plantation-turned-maximum-security prison in Louisiana that is filled with Black men who work across the 18,000-acre land for virtually no pay. And it is the story of Blandford Cemetery, the final resting place of tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers.

A deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, How the Word Is Passed illustrates how some of our most essential stories are hidden in plain view – whether in places we might drive by on our way to work, holidays such as Juneteenth or entire neighbourhoods like downtown Manhattan, where the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women and children has been deeply imprinted.

How the Word is Passed is a landmark book that offers a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in making sense of the United States. Chosen as a book of the year by President Barack Obama, The Economist, Time, the New York Times and more, fans of Brit(ish) and Natives will be utterly captivated.

What readers are saying about How the Word is Passed:

‘How the Word Is Passed frees history, frees humanity to reckon honestly with the legacy of slavery. We need this book.’ Ibram X. Kendi, Number One New York Times bestselling author

‘An extraordinary contribution to the way we understand ourselves.’ Julian Lucas, New York Times Book Review

‘The detail and depth of the storytelling is vivid and visceral, making history present and real.’ Hope Wabuke, NPR

‘This isn’t just a work of history, it’s an intimate, active exploration of how we’re still constructing and distorting our history.” Ron Charles, The Washington Post

‘In re-examining neighbourhoods, holidays and quotidian sites, Smith forces us to reconsider what we think we know about American history.’ Time

‘A history of slavery in this country unlike anything you’ve read before.’ Entertainment Weekly

‘A beautifully written, evocative, and timely meditation on the way slavery is commemorated in the United States.’ Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize-winning author