As a forester in 1987, Peter Wohlleben began to feel bad about felling trees in Germany. An epiphany led him to look into trees and saw that these unspeaking form of life was much more like us, humans, than we thought: indeed, they form societies that share resources and protection, as well as tending for their young. His book, The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate — Discoveries From a Secret World, became an unlikely best-seller at a time when, our eyes glued to all sorts of screens, we miss out on the planet we live. We miss the forest for the tree.
