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They Left One Tree
Five hundred years from now, Earth's three billion citizens look up to their solar system after centuries of retreating from every environment on the planet. A hushed-up discovery, too impossible to believe, but too important to ignore, sends astrobiology professor Jack Wilson away from his home in Chicago. Alone, he undertakes a quiet journey through a landscape almost nobody has stepped in for centuries: the interior of North America. Success could rewrite history—the world's, and his family's. Failure risks the lives of his friends, including ones he hasn't seen for a decade.
Also available in paperback.
Also available in paperback.
244 pages, Hardcover
Published January 7, 2022
1 person is currently reading
28 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 21, 2022
When a story really sucks me in, it’s typically sparked by an infatuation with the setting. It’s that intense yearning to stroll through the halls of Hogwarts, or to come around the bend and spot Rivendell for the first time. I didn’t expect that feeling when I picked up They Left One Tree, yet I found myself considering whether I should re-read the book shortly after I’d finished it, just to return to the scene again.
The place isn’t some far-off fantasy land: It’s the U.S., and it’s 500 years in a surprisingly plausible future. But unlike the other works I’ve encountered that imagine a world with a changed climate, debut author Carl Armstrong’s America isn’t a place of destruction and despair. The path to this future may have been rocky, but people seem to be getting by fine with new technology. Humans have congregated in giant mega-cities, leaving the rest of the landscape open for carbon-eating tech and, most important of all, active rewilding.
We first meet Jack Wilson as a child the night his backyard forest, Chicago’s last, is cut down. Fast forwarding 28 years to the present, we see Jack in his current life, an astrobiology professor about to embark on an anniversary vacation with a rather disagreeable wife. By the time he’s pulled away — rescued? — by some urgent news from work, the reader is perhaps as relieved to leave her behind as Jack is. Our story follows the academic on a journey that takes him out of the big city — with its green roofs and personal computers in contact lenses — and out into these wilds, a place where no person has set foot for generations.
It’s nature as nature once was, but the way Armstrong paints the scene, it feels as much like a fantasy land as it does an Aldo Leopold narrative. It’s a portrayal our native landscapes have always deserved, with the grandeur encouraged by fiction and the ecological accuracy of non-fiction. And it’s a landscape sprinkled with the intrigue of ancient ruins which, as it were, reveal what may one day remain of our society as we know it today.
What brings Jack outside the city limits, and what he encounters on his journey, were such delightful surprises that I dare not reveal them here. The book is an easy read I’d recommend to anyone, but I’m most excited of all to share it with people like me: People who appreciate our natural world, have a strong sense of adventure, and are eager to experience a future that leaves them filled with optimism.
The place isn’t some far-off fantasy land: It’s the U.S., and it’s 500 years in a surprisingly plausible future. But unlike the other works I’ve encountered that imagine a world with a changed climate, debut author Carl Armstrong’s America isn’t a place of destruction and despair. The path to this future may have been rocky, but people seem to be getting by fine with new technology. Humans have congregated in giant mega-cities, leaving the rest of the landscape open for carbon-eating tech and, most important of all, active rewilding.
We first meet Jack Wilson as a child the night his backyard forest, Chicago’s last, is cut down. Fast forwarding 28 years to the present, we see Jack in his current life, an astrobiology professor about to embark on an anniversary vacation with a rather disagreeable wife. By the time he’s pulled away — rescued? — by some urgent news from work, the reader is perhaps as relieved to leave her behind as Jack is. Our story follows the academic on a journey that takes him out of the big city — with its green roofs and personal computers in contact lenses — and out into these wilds, a place where no person has set foot for generations.
It’s nature as nature once was, but the way Armstrong paints the scene, it feels as much like a fantasy land as it does an Aldo Leopold narrative. It’s a portrayal our native landscapes have always deserved, with the grandeur encouraged by fiction and the ecological accuracy of non-fiction. And it’s a landscape sprinkled with the intrigue of ancient ruins which, as it were, reveal what may one day remain of our society as we know it today.
What brings Jack outside the city limits, and what he encounters on his journey, were such delightful surprises that I dare not reveal them here. The book is an easy read I’d recommend to anyone, but I’m most excited of all to share it with people like me: People who appreciate our natural world, have a strong sense of adventure, and are eager to experience a future that leaves them filled with optimism.
October 19, 2022
My surprise great read of the year! Binged this book in just a few days because I was so immersed in this world and story. Lots of unique thoughts on how the future could be, not just another miserable post-apocalyptic scenario. An enlightening way we might evolve!
August 6, 2022
I need to start by saying that futuristic books are not my normal read. I was intrigued by the description and title. I had a bit of a struggle getting started but about 3 chapters in, it took off and was hard to put down. I ended up reading it in one day. The idea was creative and the writing was so descriptive that I felt like I was on the journey as well. I could picture the environments and the changes in landscape.
The mega cities and the environmental crisis are sadly realistic. I hope this does not prove accurate for our future. This is an intriguing environmental book from a new author and I look forward to reading his next book. The prism prize was well deserved.
The mega cities and the environmental crisis are sadly realistic. I hope this does not prove accurate for our future. This is an intriguing environmental book from a new author and I look forward to reading his next book. The prism prize was well deserved.
January 8, 2023
Found this book on my run and it’s Something I’d probably not pick up, but I’m glad I gave it a chance. Good read!
January 5, 2025
Flew through this novel ! Innovative concept and deeply engaging world - building . Would love another in this series !
December 19, 2022
Common threads between "Into the Wild," Ansel Adams and John Muir photographs, a little Steinbeck, a little "Life of Pi," "Hobbit," and "They Left One Tree." (That is meant as a compliment.) This is one story where the ending is actually anticlimactic because it is the journey that becomes the story, and the narrator's journey is so cool. I was mentally tracking Jack as he walked west...is he taking the old Interstate 80 route? Is he walking Ogden Ave. from Chicago to Colorado? I wonder about Jane, though, and I am left with some questions. Will there be a follow-up? Does Jane represent some oppressive governmental spy entity? When she had Taylor down in the sub basement room, I thought she was pretty sinister. What would she have done to Jack had she actually intercepted him? What will the consequences be for Harold with Jane, if there are any? Is the split with Betty going to be messy? Does she have the capacity to self-reflect?
I like Jack Wilson. I would like to walk with him. Neither one of us would talk much though. Why talk when there is so much natural world to interact with.
And a nice plug for Benedictine!
I like Jack Wilson. I would like to walk with him. Neither one of us would talk much though. Why talk when there is so much natural world to interact with.
And a nice plug for Benedictine!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews