The Island of Missing Trees: A Novel

because that is what nature did to death, it transformed abrupt endings into a thousand new beginnings.

Lepidoptera

vainglory.

For wisdom, try a beech; for intelligence, a pine; for bravery, a rowan; for generosity, a hazel; for joy, a juniper; and for when you need to learn to let go of what you cannot control, a birch with its white-silver bark, peeling and shedding layers like old skins.

hackneyed

But sometimes she danced because she felt grateful to be alive. Or because she was high, having accidentally digested too much nectar laced with caffeine.

‘Near East’

People assume it’s a matter of personality, the difference between optimists and pessimists. But I believe it all comes down to an inability to forget. The greater your powers of retention, the slimmer your chances at optimism.

the repetitions and rhythms that suffocated him little by little, but never fast enough.