City of Trees: Essays on Life, Death and the Need for a Forest

Written by Sophie Cunningham
Text Publishing (2019)

Longlisted for The Nib Literary Award (2019)

How do we take in the beauty of our planet while processing the losses? What trees can survive in the city? Which animals can survive in the wild? How do any of us – humans, animals, trees – find a forest we can call home? In these moving, thought-provoking essays Sophie Cunningham considers the meaning of trees and our love of them. She chronicles the deaths of both her fathers, and the survival of P-22, a mountain lion in Griffith Park, Los Angeles; contemplates the loneliness of Ranee, the first elephant in Australia; celebrates the iconic eucalyptus and explores its international status as an invasive species. City of Trees is a powerful collection of nature, travel and memoir writing set in the context of global climate change. It meanders through, circles around and sometimes faces head on the most pressing issues of the day. It never loses sight of the trees.

Griffith Review (2019) – How To Draw A Tree

“[Cunningham’s] naif, free-form style, is a perfect foil for the stories-within-stories-within stories that lie at the heart of this important, entertaining and moving book.” – The Age 

“City of Trees is a sorrowful meditation on the effects of climate change and time, but it is also full of wonder, of hope.” – Kill Your Darlings 

“Cunningham’s essays are accounts of her intimate encounters with trees, her gift is in making them feel like they are our stories as well.” – Australian Book Review

“City of Trees is a deeply ethical and thoughtful call to consciousness, a call to see and feel being in and of the natural world.” – Sydney Review of Books