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ayeshhasrinath's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
jellsbells's review against another edition
I work with insect taxonomy and after listening to one of my rants about the nit-picking nature of classic morphological taxonomists my Mum gave me this book to read. I think at the heart of this book is an exploration of botanical life science. Not only its history and schools of thought but also its evolution and its consequences. It was a celebration of the interconnected nature of all life - one that I really needed. All is leaf! Beautiful, thoughtful and fascinating read!
narisawahlang's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
emikynd's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
hanxiety_in_pink's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This was a book that I had heard nothing of, but when the wonderful folks at Harper Collins offered us the chance to pick any books from their catalogue it jumped out at me for its beautiful cover and its description as a multi-layered literary saga which journeys across countries and centuries.
A multiple timeline novel, it follows the journeys of four different characters, not connected in any traditional way to each other, instead, maybe more importantly, connected through the Earth.
It is reflective, not just in its content but in its format too, the four characters' stories are arranged in a palindromical way, beginning and ending with that of Shai, a contemporary young Indian woman who leaves her life in Delhi to go back to her rural hometown. Here she immerses herself in their way of life, learning of the community's struggle to retain their identity after the country regained their independence, and of the fight they still have on their hands against the mining for uranium on the land they love.
We also meet Evelyn who is a young woman, studying science and particularly inspired by the work of writer and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. She travels to India, and enjoys the freedom she has here to learn and explore, seeing things from a perspective different to those which are considered "right" within the male dominated scientific community in Edwardian England.
Goethe himself features in his own parts of the book, travelling around Italy in the late 18th Century, formulating the ideas that would become his work 'The Metamorphosis of Plants', and the Swedish botanist and taxonomist Carl Linnaeus, takes the central section, written in prose poetry, detailing his expedition to Lapland a few decades earlier.
Philosophical, thought-provoking and beautifully written, I really enjoyed the merging of real-life and fiction. All of the characters were likable and interesting and the detailed botanical descriptions really gave life to the locations too. It is a hefty book at nearly 500 pages and the chapters are LONG, as the stories do not really intertwine it felt more like four separate (not-so) short stories and I wonder if that made it feel a little longer as I wasn't really carried on that wave of a continuing story.
A multiple timeline novel, it follows the journeys of four different characters, not connected in any traditional way to each other, instead, maybe more importantly, connected through the Earth.
It is reflective, not just in its content but in its format too, the four characters' stories are arranged in a palindromical way, beginning and ending with that of Shai, a contemporary young Indian woman who leaves her life in Delhi to go back to her rural hometown. Here she immerses herself in their way of life, learning of the community's struggle to retain their identity after the country regained their independence, and of the fight they still have on their hands against the mining for uranium on the land they love.
We also meet Evelyn who is a young woman, studying science and particularly inspired by the work of writer and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. She travels to India, and enjoys the freedom she has here to learn and explore, seeing things from a perspective different to those which are considered "right" within the male dominated scientific community in Edwardian England.
Goethe himself features in his own parts of the book, travelling around Italy in the late 18th Century, formulating the ideas that would become his work 'The Metamorphosis of Plants', and the Swedish botanist and taxonomist Carl Linnaeus, takes the central section, written in prose poetry, detailing his expedition to Lapland a few decades earlier.
Philosophical, thought-provoking and beautifully written, I really enjoyed the merging of real-life and fiction. All of the characters were likable and interesting and the detailed botanical descriptions really gave life to the locations too. It is a hefty book at nearly 500 pages and the chapters are LONG, as the stories do not really intertwine it felt more like four separate (not-so) short stories and I wonder if that made it feel a little longer as I wasn't really carried on that wave of a continuing story.
vidhyaanand's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
A must-read for anyone that loves our living world, and understands that we’re viscerally interconnected with nature.
olgakoponen's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
roomforastory's review against another edition
4.0
This book is an interesting mix of contemporary, historical, and eco-fiction with some poetry too. It follows the stories of Shai, a present-day drifter who returns home to northeast India, Evie, a student of botany and science in Edwardian England who travels to India in search of her holy grail, and Goethe, yes, that Goethe, who in his travels to Italy spends time exploring the natural sciences and proposes a system of thinking about plants that is entirely different from Linnaeus.
As someone who has studied plants, I thoroughly enjoyed the natural, scientific, and botanic themes. The plot was a little slow at times, which made it somewhat difficult to get through, but the themes were so beautifully illustrated and explained that I'm willing to overlook that. 4 stars.
As someone who has studied plants, I thoroughly enjoyed the natural, scientific, and botanic themes. The plot was a little slow at times, which made it somewhat difficult to get through, but the themes were so beautifully illustrated and explained that I'm willing to overlook that. 4 stars.
margaret21's review
5.0
Judging by the reviews on Goodreads, this is a Marmite sort of book. I belong in the camp who loved it, didn't want it to end. It's a glorious sandwich of a book, in which we are introduced, in separate novella-style sections, to characters One (Indian 30-something Shah), Two (Young English blue-stocking, Evie), and Three (German diplomat Johann), before meeting the shortest section, about Swedish botanist and taxonomist Linnaeus’s 1732 expedition to Lapland, which is told exclusively through prose poetry and verse. Then it's back to characters Three, Two, and One. These characters never meet, or have any kind of relationship. Shah lives in the present day, and has travelled to north east India: Evie travels to India (north east!) from Cambridge in 1910, and Three is Goethe, who has travelled to Rome and is engaged in developing botanical ideas. All are quite differently behaving unexpectedly, discovering themselves, making botanical observations and questioning the status quo of the society in which they find themselves. Though their paths never cross, it's this tangling of their stories together which gives the book its power. Not one narrative is resolved and the reader is left hanging, wondering 'what next?'. This is an unsatisfactory summary on my part. I've given you no real idea about why I cared so much about Shai, about Evie, about Johann and their stories. But I did.