How to Plant a Billion Trees: A Memoir of Childhood Trauma and the Healing Power of Nature
Nicole Walker
Feb 2026 · Bloomsbury US Audio · Narrated by Laurel Lefkow
headphones
Audiobook
9 hr 46 min
Unabridged
Want a free 15 min sample? Listen anytime, even offline.
Add
About this audiobook
Bloomsbury presents How to Plant a Billion Trees: A Memoir of Childhood Trauma and the Healing Power of Nature by Nicole Walker read by Laurel Lefkow
When Nicole Walker was molested and had an abortion at age 11, the distance between her and the world grew until she couldn’t imagine a future place for her anywhere. In How to Plant a Billion Trees, Walker tries to understand why her whole life didn’t fall apart, as was predicted. As she pieces together her story, she finds that it was thanks in no small part to her mother, her sisters, her friends who did not let the sexual abuse to define her. In this candid portrayal of a young girl, Nicole Walker writes about how, thanks to her family, her friends, and the mountains of the Wasatch, Cascades, and San Francisco Peaks, she reknit herself into the fabric of a supportive culture.
Employing the forest as a model to understand how to reconnect her life with the world, Nicole studies the way that ecosystems anticipate, react, and support each small part of the whole. As she learns more about ecology, she discovers that in a healthy forest, even the gritty, decaying elements contribute to the health of the forest. The process of rebuilding the self into a community parallels the process of a forest’s growth. To apply that lesson to the human ecosystem, Nicole realizes that even the hard-to-stomach stories need to be told, and, with air, that grit is transformed into something alive and new.
When Nicole Walker was molested and had an abortion at age 11, the distance between her and the world grew until she couldn’t imagine a future place for her anywhere. In How to Plant a Billion Trees, Walker tries to understand why her whole life didn’t fall apart, as was predicted. As she pieces together her story, she finds that it was thanks in no small part to her mother, her sisters, her friends who did not let the sexual abuse to define her. In this candid portrayal of a young girl, Nicole Walker writes about how, thanks to her family, her friends, and the mountains of the Wasatch, Cascades, and San Francisco Peaks, she reknit herself into the fabric of a supportive culture.
Employing the forest as a model to understand how to reconnect her life with the world, Nicole studies the way that ecosystems anticipate, react, and support each small part of the whole. As she learns more about ecology, she discovers that in a healthy forest, even the gritty, decaying elements contribute to the health of the forest. The process of rebuilding the self into a community parallels the process of a forest’s growth. To apply that lesson to the human ecosystem, Nicole realizes that even the hard-to-stomach stories need to be told, and, with air, that grit is transformed into something alive and new.
Bloomsbury presents How to Plant a Billion Trees: A Memoir of Childhood Trauma and the Healing Power of Nature by Nicole Walker read by Laurel Lefkow
When Nicole Walker was molested and had an abortion at age 11, the distance between her and the world grew until she couldn’t imagine a future pla...
Discover more
About the author
Nicole Walker is the author of Writing the Hard Stuff, Sustainability: A Love Story, Where the Tiny Things Are, Egg, Micrograms, Quench Your Thirst with Salt, and This Noisy Egg. She is also coeditor of the essay collections Science of Story and Bending Genre: Essays on Creative Nonfiction. Nicole serves as nonfiction Editor at Diagram and Professor at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, USA.
Nicole Walker is the author of Writing the Hard Stuff, Sustainability: A Love Story, Where the Tiny Things Are, Egg, Micrograms, Quench Your Thirst with Salt, and This Noisy Egg. She is also coeditor of the essay collections Science of Story and Bending Genre: Essays on Creative Nonfiction. Nicol...
Rate this audiobook
Tell us what you think.
Listening information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can read books purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
