Seeing nature-Paul Krafel

Hope for Nature has created a ground swell of enthusiasm at Chelsea Green. An earlier, self-published version of this new edition was sent to our office by a friend. The book's quiet, black-and-white cover led it to overlooked at first among proposals with more superficial sizzle. The first editor to read it (Rachael Cohen) gave Krafel's work a glowing review. Soon, the other members of the editorial department were lined up to read our single copy. The recommendations were unanimous: This book needs to be read. Along with the accolades were comparisons to The Little Prince, Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, and Giono's The Man Who Planted Trees. Hope for Nature is a series of brief stories or parables that offer "ools for seeing" the natural world in new and surprising ways. Most of the stories take the reader to wild locations, including canyons, tundra, mountain ridges, and Indian caves, yet some are concerned with contemplating the human-made: water-diversion trenches or supermarket check-out lines. In one of Krafel's parables, he meditates upon a one-inch-square patch of ordinary ground.