The Man Who Planted Trees: With a Guide for the Woodwise Consumer - Jean Giono

This is a slender little story, a sort of fable, quite effectively written, I think. It is a plea for reforestation and, more broadly, a celebration of a sort of generous hope that goes beyond oneself -- Giono’s hero who plants trees for future generations, without personal reward, is the antithesis of the destructiveness epitomized by the quarreling charcoal burners in the story, and the wars. The simplicity of the writing style is one of its main attractions.