There is no warning. No chance to prepare.

They arrive in the night: thundering up through the ground, transforming streets and towns into shadowy forest. Everything is destroyed. Broken bodies, still wrapped in tattered bed linen, hang among the twitching leaves.

Adrien Thomas has never been much of a hero. But when he realises that no help is coming, he ventures out into this unrecognisable world. Michelle, his wife, is across the sea in Ireland. He has no way of knowing whether the trees have come for her too. Then Adrien meets green-fingered Hannah and her teenage son Seb. Together, they set out to find Hannah’s forester brother, to reunite Adrien with his wife – and to discover just how deep the forest really goes. Their journey will take them to a place of terrible beauty and violence, the dark heart of nature and the darkness inside themselves.

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‘The Trees is a stunning and vivid examination of the relationship between humans and the environment. Violent, beautiful, devastating and utterly enchanting, it’s a triumph for Shaw, who masterfully brings every detail of the book to life. A wonderfully imaginative story, but also a compelling social commentary.’ –  Herald

‘Strange and brilliantly unsettling, it’s a vivid look at a world gone to the wild.’ –  Mail on Sunday, Best New Fiction

‘A thought-provoking meditation on what it means to be wild… a fantastical and haunting story.’ – Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow Child

‘Shaw’s climax is like nothing else… crescendoing with almost CGI levels of spectacle as Tarantino meets Middle Earth. The Trees is very odd indeed, but certainly compelling.’ –  Financial Times

‘A fairy story for people who can still envisage a future that isn’t completely bleak’ – Stanley Donwood, author of Humor

‘An enchanting sweep of a journey, The Trees will touch your soul one moment and have you cowering beneath the sofa the next.’ – The Bookbag

‘A compelling adventure.’ – Marie Claire

‘Brilliant … Masterfully written and utterly enthralling … Dark and beautiful. ****’ –  Grazia