The Trees
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
The Trees. They arrived in the night: wrenching through the ground, thundering up into the air, and turning Adrien's suburban street into a shadowy forest. Shocked by the sight but determined to get some answers, he ventures out, passing destroyed buildings, felled power lines, and broken bodies still wrapped in tattered bed linens hanging from branches.
It is soon apparent that no help is coming and that these trees, which seem the work of centuries rather than hours, span far beyond the town. As far, perhaps, as the coast, where across the sea in Ireland, Adrien's wife is away on a business trip and there is no way of knowing whether she is alive or dead.
When Adrien meets Hannah, a woman who, unlike him, believes that the coming of the trees may signal renewal rather than destruction and Seb, her technology-obsessed son, they persuade him to join them. Together, they pack up what remains of the lives they once had and set out on a quest to find Hannah's forester brother and Adrien's wife--and to discover just how deep the forest goes.
Their journey through the trees will take them into unimaginable territory: to a place of terrible beauty and violence, of deadly enemies and unexpected allies, to the dark heart of nature and the darkness--and also the power--inside themselves.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Shaw's (The Girl with Glass Feet) atmospheric modern fairy tale, Adrien Thomas prefers to sit on the sidelines and watch life go by until trees begin suddenly pushing up from the ground. Adrien walks outside to find England in ruins; the trees have killed numerous people (usually impaling them on their branches) and completely destroyed civilization's infrastructure. When he meets Hannah and her teen son, Seb, they set out to find her brother, Zach, a park ranger, and if possible, get to Ireland to find Adrien's wife, Michelle, who is on a business trip. Along the way they meet Inoue Hiroko, a girl who proves handy with a slingshot; meanwhile, Adrien repeatedly glimpses tiny creatures constructed of forest detritus. Shaw offers a postapocalyptic world where the woods reign, described in lush, evocative prose, and characters that shine. During the journey, Adrien finds within himself a courage that he never thought possible, and Hannah begins to see nature in an entirely different way. It's a coming-of-age for Seb, and a chance to bond with his mother, while the enigmatic Hiroko battles her own demons. This stunning exploration of love, hope, and the wildness inside us all will have readers enchanted from the first page.
