Priyanka Kumar, "Light Between Apple Trees: Rediscovering the Wild Through a Beloved American Fruit" (Island Press, 2025)

The apple, long celebrated as a symbol of health and American folklore, has become a hollowed-out relic of its former self—reduced to a handful of bland, lab-engineered varieties that fail to satisfy our palates or our deeper connection to nature. In 'The Light Between Apple Trees,' naturalist Priyanka Kumar reclaims the apple not as a commodity, but as a portal to the wild. Drawing from her childhood in the biodiverse Himalayan foothills and her current life in drought-stricken New Mexico, Kumar reveals how feral apple trees—often dismissed as weeds—serve as vital biodiversity hubs, sustaining bears, birds, and insects. She introduces the radical concept of the 'micro-wild': small, overlooked patches of nature that, though fragmented, still teem with life and offer urban dwellers a tangible, accessible way to reconnect with the wild. Far from being a nostalgic retreat, the micro-wild is a practical, urgent response to ecological fragmentation. Kumar argues that the wild doesn’t need to be preserved in distant national parks—it’s already here, in the edges of forests, along riverbanks, and in forgotten orchards. By rediscovering the apple’s true diversity—its complex flavors, its deep history, and its role in ancient symbiotic relationships with animals—we can begin to heal our fractured relationship with nature.