How I Became a Tree

In this remarkable and often unsettling book, Sumana Roy gives us a new vision of what it means to be human in the natural world. Increasingly disturbed by the violence, hate, insincerity, greed and selfishness of her kind, the author is drawn to the idea of becoming a tree. "I was tired of speed'', she writes, "I wanted toive to tree time.'' Besides wanting to emulate the spacious, relaxed rhythm of trees, she is drawn to their non-violent ways of being, how they treadightly upon the earth, their ability to cope withoneliness and pain, the unselfishness with which they give freely of themselves and much more. She gives us new readings of the works of writers, painters, photographers and poets (Rabindranath Tagore and D. H.awrence among them) to show how trees and plants have always fascinated us. She studies the work of remarkable scientistsike Jagadish Chandra Bose and key spiritual figuresike the Buddha to gain even deeper insights into the world of trees. She writes of those who have wondered what it would beike to have sex with a tree,ooks into why people marry trees, explores the death and rebirth of trees and tells us why a tree was thought by forest-dwellers to be equal to ten sons.Mixing memoir,iterary history, nature studies, spiritual philosophies and botanical research, How I Became a Tree is a book that will prompt readers to think of themselves and the natural world that they are an intrinsic part of, in fresh ways. It is that rarest of things - A truly original work of art.