The Traveling Tree
The international bestseller from Japan
Published on 6. November 2025
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-1-85675-590-0 (ISBN)
Description
Over half a million copies sold in Japan
In this enduring classic, Michio Hoshino shares his reflections on the natural world, and our place within it.
Beautifully written, this book is a collection of Hoshino's writing published at the peak of his artistic prowess as a writer and photographer, only one year before his career was tragically cut short at the age of 43 by a fatal bear attack in the Kamchatka Peninsula.
First published in Japanese, The Traveling Tree is a literary triumph, available in English for the first time.
'Hoshino's prose sits somewhere between Henry David Thoreau's matter-of-fact observations in Walden and Annie Dillard's poetical musings in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.' Asian Review of Books
In this enduring classic, Michio Hoshino shares his reflections on the natural world, and our place within it.
Beautifully written, this book is a collection of Hoshino's writing published at the peak of his artistic prowess as a writer and photographer, only one year before his career was tragically cut short at the age of 43 by a fatal bear attack in the Kamchatka Peninsula.
First published in Japanese, The Traveling Tree is a literary triumph, available in English for the first time.
'Hoshino's prose sits somewhere between Henry David Thoreau's matter-of-fact observations in Walden and Annie Dillard's poetical musings in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.' Asian Review of Books
Reviews / Votes
Translator Eli K.P. William renders Hoshino's playful but reverential prose into English for the first time... The Traveling Tree proves how boundless curiosity - whether for roaming wolves, Arctic glaciers or bush pilots - can breathe better, more honest, open-ended attention into the world we inhabit * The Japan Times * Elegantly translated into English for the first time * Literary Review * Hoshino's prose sits somewhere between Henry David Thoreau's matter-of-fact observations in Walden and Annie Dillard's poetical musings in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. * Asian Review of Books *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Octopus Publishing Group
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
N/A
Dimensions
Height: 221 mm
Width: 134 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
330 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-85675-590-0 (9781856755900)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
11/2025
Gaia
€2.99
Available for download
Persons
Michio Hoshino was a Japanese-born nature photographer. After his introduction to Alaska, Hoshino was smitten with America's northernmost state and dedicated the remainder of his life to photographing and writing about it. The Travelling Tree is a collection of his writing and will be supplemented in translation with a selection of his finest images. It was published at the peak of his artistic prowess, only two years before his career was tragically cut short at the age of 43 by a fatal bear attack while on a shoot in the Kamchatka Peninsula.