American Chestnut by Susan Freinkel

The subtitle gives a good summary: "The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree." This is an interesting if unfinished story. Since the tree is not extinct there is hope. It was revealing that in our current state of science we are so much at the mercy of plant pathogens. I had to remind myself that such is certainly also true of human pathogens!

The book is slightly aimless and somewhat repetitious. There are only so many ways to say that a tree is wonderful and its loss is regrettable.

Still, the book is hopeful without denying the difficulty of the task, to restore a tree that once spread throughout the eastern forests of the United States.