White Beech: The Rainforest Years
{{Short description|2013 book by Germaine Greer}}
{{Infobox book
| name = White Beech: The Rainforest Years
| image = White beech book cover.jpg
| border = yes
| caption = Cover of the first edition
| author = Germaine Greer
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| subjects =
| publisher = Bloomsbury
| pub_date = 2013
| media_type = Print (hardback and paperback)
| pages =
| isbn =
}}
White Beech: The Rainforest Years is a book describing efforts of regeneration of rainforest written by Germaine Greer. It was first published in 2013 by Bloomsbury and has been reprinted several times.
Experiment
Germaine Greer was a successful writer by 2001 when she decided to invest all her earnings to purchase 60 hectares of overused land for a price of 268,000 pounds in the midst of a rainforest in Queensland, Australia. It was a part of Gondwana forest that was logged during 19th century and converted to a banana farm during the 20th century. She left the place to itself so that the rainforest would regenerate, and by 2013 her experiment was successful, where a part of the overused land regenerated as rainforest.{{cite book |last1=Greer |first1=Germaine| title=White Beech : the Rainforest Years| date=2013| publisher=Bloomsburry|location=Great Britain|isbn=9781408846735|url=https://archive.org/details/whitebeechrainfo0000gree|url-access=registration |access-date=15 June 2016}}
Reception
The book is described by The Independent as "a quasi-religious epic out of a part of her remarkable life when she decided to restore a small, wrecked rainforest in Australia, her homeland. The tone is apocalyptic, themes existential and critical".{{cite news|last1=Brown|first1=Yasmin Alibhai |author-link=Yasmin Alibhai-Brown|title=White Beech: The Rainforest Years by Germaine Greer; book review| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/white-beech-the-rainforest-years-by-germaine-greer-book-review-9096750.html|access-date=17 June 2016|work=The Independent|date= 30 January 2014}} The author received standing ovation on several occasions during her book introductory tour in Australia.{{cite news|last1=Roberts|first1=Yvonne|title=White Beech: The Rainforest Years by Germaine Greer – review| url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/02/white-beech-rainforest-years-germaine-greer-review|access-date=15 June 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|date=2 February 2014}} The writer herself declared in the prologue of the book that the story of this book is an extraordinary stroke of luck. The New York Times dubs it "an untidy and mostly lackluster book, sad to say, one that buries her rhetorical gifts under several inches of mulch" but at the same time lauds it as one of the best love stories in book format.{{cite news|last1=Garner|first1=Dwight|title=A Feminist in the Forest |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/16/books/in-white-beech-germaine-greer-takes-an-ecological-journey.html?_r=0|access-date=17 June 2016|newspaper=The New York Times|date=15 July 2014}} The Australian describes it as an "encyclopedic book – taking in botany, history and humility – it is ultimately a reflection on the only significant question: how we live on earth".{{cite news|last1=Plunkett|first1=Fecility|title=Germaine Greer goes back to her roots as the forest's fool|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/germaine-greer-goes-back-to-her-roots-as-the-forests-fool/story-fn9n8gph-1226750506976|access-date=17 June 2016|newspaper=The Australian|date=2 November 2013}}