I suppose that one important aspect of the economy of nature that has shaped my thinking is its circularity, in which materials flow in cycles and there is no such thing as waste. Everything gets regenerated so that life continues to flourish. Just about all the miraculous production by plants is redistributed in some way, passed among food webs, feeding other lives and eventually building the soil so it can all start again.
I continue to marvel every day at the reciprocity in something as basic as the two foundations of life on the planet–the inverse processes of photosynthesis and respiration. I mean, think of it…every breath we take is oxygen exhaled by plants, a so-called waste product. And no sooner does it enliven our bloodstream than we exhale carbon dioxide in return, which the plants take in in order to return the favor. It’s the ultimate biological poetry, my breath is your breath, and life is magnified by the exchange. Shouldn’t human economies emulate this?
― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Interview, Orion Magazine
What booksellers are saying about The Serviceberry
- I want everyone to read The Serviceberry. This is now well-known, but Robin Wall Kimmerer has a beautiful way of looking at the natural world, and extrapolating meaning that applies to so many facets of life. Reading it made me want to participate more in the “gift economy” and helped me understand how gifts create community. It’s the kind of book I’ll be talking about for a while.
― Daniel Jordan, Pearl’s Books in Fayetteville, Arkansas | BUY
- This book came to me the week Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina and my heart. While witnessing the earth’s rage and strength of mutual aid in real time, reading of nature’s interdependence was my buoy among flooding of rivers, loss, and grief. In these times of greed-driven, scarcity-fueled climate change, this writing is a balm. In sweet and inviting prose, Robin Wall Kimmerer gifts us yet another powerful lesson from our ecosystem teachers. For emergent strategists, those weary of late-stage capitalism, and all earthlings who read.
― RC Collman, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina | BUY
- Can a book be cozy, loving, encouraging, compassionate AND a threat to the brutal and cutthroat consumer capitalism of our era? I present to you Robin Wall Kimmerer’s first book since her surprise mega bestselling sleeper hit Braiding Sweetgrass. The serviceberry is a bushy, underappreciated fruit tree native to Eastern North America that Kimmerer uses as inspiration to muse broadly on “abundance and reciprocity in the natural world.” The tree embodies the values of gratitude, interconnectedness, and mutual aid. Strikingly, the serviceberry’s broad and generous distribution of its wealth ensures its own flourishing! Let’s all read this small, beautiful, and powerful little book and talk about how we can reimagine modern economic life to be a little more sane and humane!
― Josh Niesse, Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia | BUY
- Kimmerer succinctly and beautifully articulates the need for a more harmonious, sustainable way of living. In a world that seems to prioritize personal enrichment, Kimmerer emphasizes the need for one built on mutual aid, gift economies, and reciprocity all inspired by the wisdom of nature.
― Hezekiah Olorode, Old Town Books in Alexandria, Virginia | BUY
- Robin Wall Kimmerer’s most recent work is a poignant and timely foray into the ways that we view “earthly gifts”, in her opinion a far more appropriate name for what we call natural resources. In vignettes, she traces how abundance has been warped into scarcity, paralleling discussions of capitalist economics with detailed observations of the gift economy centered around her beloved serviceberry. Weaving together indigenous knowledge, modern economic thought, and her keen naturalist’s eye, Kimmerer’s latest work is yet another triumph. But more importantly, in a world where climate anxiety is all consuming, The Serviceberry articulates hope for a future built on compassion and reciprocity rather than fear and exploitation, holding a space for light in the midst of darkness.
― Sydney Mason, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina | BUY
About Robin Wall Kimmerer
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants as well as Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. Kimmerer is a 2022 MacArthur Fellow. She lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.
John Burgoyne is a member of the New York Society of Illustrators and an alumni of Massachusetts College of Art. John has won over 100 awards in the United States and Europe including Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, Hatch Awards, Graphis, Print, One Show, New York Art Directors Club and Clio. His work can be found at JohnTBurgoyneIllustration.com.
