The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World

By Robin Wall Kimmerer

Book Overview

An Instant New York Times Bestseller

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.

As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry's relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealth--its abundance of sweet, juicy berries--to meet the needs of its natural community. And this distribution ensures its own survival. As Kimmerer explains, "Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency."

As Elizabeth Gilbert writes, Robin Wall Kimmerer is "a great teacher, and her words are a hymn of love to the world." The Serviceberry is an antidote to the broken relationships and misguided goals of our times, and a reminder that "hoarding won't save us, all flourishing is mutual."

Robin Wall Kimmerer is donating her advance payments from this book as a reciprocal gift, back to the land, for land protection, restoration, and justice.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1668072246
• ISBN13: 9781668072240
• Release Date: November 2024
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.2" x 7.1"

Customer Reviews

"We live in a time when every choice matters."

Great book, in her usual cadence and love letter to nature-like style but much more pointed toward our consumption vs. gift-economy. Indigenous wisdom is something we should follow and the idea of shared responsibility to the planet is the only way to survive. It's clear the other reviewer read two lines about the problem with U.S capitalism vs successful socialist countries and got frothed up about the mention of Dear Leader. Goon. Book is great. Read it, it's worth it.

Not a bad first half, the second half leads pretty hard

I thought this would be informative for the service-berry, it turns into a communistic manifesto of sorts, granted from a perfect world standpoint, but not what i wanted. it unfortunately left me feeling like id wasted time reading it and truly i had.