Plants, animals, trees, fungi, ecosystems, but also mountains, islands and seas and cities: Chlorophyll – Stories for Living on the Earth, the new series from the publishing house Terre di Mezzo, will host narrative works, essays, reportage, travelogues and illustrated volumes, all centered on the importance of nature, landscapes and their exploration.
“When we began planning Chlorophyll, we pictured the library of its ideal reader. A library that, beside novels and essays (from whose pages, now and then, a flower or a dried leaf slips), welcomes maps, guides, compasses, strange postcards, pebbles, a few shells. Not only words, commas and ink, but also the traces of an adventure, of a journey, of a discovery,” says Giuseppe Favi, editor of the series, convinced that anyone who works for the publishing house should have a library rich in objects that tell its past and its adventures.
“Books like these, today, are more important than ever,” the editor continues. And add: “We live in a time far too fast, in which our relationship with the environment, resources, and living beings is changing rapidly.”
The series will arrive in bookstores with the first volume from November 6: Bosco maestro is by Angela Ronchi, known on social media precisely under the handle @il_bosco_maestro. The author is a biologist, researcher, and science communicator for the Network of Botanical Gardens of Lombardy, and a passionate enthusiast of plants, animals and fungi, and with this title she invites readers to slow down and listen more to nature, with its silent signals scattered everywhere.
How can you distinguish a tree just by looking at its bark? Why does the yellow primrose pop up precisely when the surrounding vegetation seems to have fallen asleep?
From November 20, the shelves will also host the second volume of the series, Life on Earth by David Attenborough (translated by Valeria Gorla): scientific rigor and documentary narration blend in this book, born from the body of work of one of the world’s greatest science communicators, who for decades has dedicated himself to creating natural history documentaries.
With him, readers embark on a journey through jungles where colorful orchids disguise themselves as insects to be pollinated, moving on to honey ant colonies, up to the snow-capped mountains of Japan, where macaques battle the cold by immersing themselves in warm volcanic springs, also passing through the marine depths where life has found unimaginable forms.
From November 15, the newsletter Chlorophyll will also begin, with a monthly cadence, delving into the natural world from various perspectives (scientists, philosophers, botanists, geographers, storytellers and artists).
