The Serviceberry cover art

The Serviceberry

An Economy of Gifts and Abundance

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The Serviceberry

By: Robin Wall Kimmerer
Narrated by: John Burgoyne, Robin Wall Kimmerer
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, an inspiring vision of how to reorient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity and community

As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most?

Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealth—its abundance of sweet, juicy berries—to meet the needs of its natural community. And this distribution ensures its own survival.

The Serviceberry is an antidote to the broken relationships and misguided goals of our times, and a reminder that “hoarding won’t save us, all flourishing is mutual.”

©2024 Robin Wall Kimmerer (P)2024 Penguin Audio Editors Select Environment Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science

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Critic reviews

The time you’ll spend reading this book will, like the time spent picking wild berries, nourish your soul, heart, and mind. I hope to give this book to everybody (Anthony Doerr)
The Serviceberry is a gem of a book. It invites us to think again about economics, and imagine another way of relating to one another based on generosity, kindness, interconnectedness, and restraint. The book reminds us that how we think, and the stories we tell, shape how we live – and it’s high time we thought and lived differently, with new stories, about our place in nature. (James Rebanks)
An uplifting, open-hearted little book that asks us to reframe our relationships in the world as ones of easy generosity. To be wealthy, explains Robin Wall Kimmerer, is to have enough to share: give all that you have, and take only what you need (Cal Flyn)
This wise little book asks us to escape our doomed extractive economy, learning from the cooperative circularity of living systems and the sustainable stewardship of indigenous cultures (Gaia Vince)
All stars
Most relevant  
Robin Wall Kimmerer with timely, and beautifully-delivered wisdom as always. May we all learn to better appreciate and proliferate the gifts of the world.

No Gathering Moss, but wonderful nonetheless

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Really excellent little book that is a treasury of ideas to make our lives better and restore the planet

Very inspiring

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A beautifully written and narrated book, with essential lessons and reawakenings, through nature. Can't recommend enough.

An absolute joy and gift!

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The Serviceberry is such a thoughtful and inspiring book. It really made me pause and reflect on how I can contribute to the web of reciprocity and bring more generosity and abundance into my life. It’s not preachy—just full of meaningful ideas that stay with you and motivate you to do better.

I could honestly listen to Robin speak all day—her voice is so gentle and soothing. The pacing of the book is perfect, and everything ties together beautifully. If you’re a fan of R.W.K.’s other books, you’ll love this one too. Even though it’s smaller, it’s just as impactful. Highly recommend!

Another wonderful book by R.W.K

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A timely meditation on consumerism. Kimmerer delivers a direct attack on the systems of power and the individuals who perpetuate unsustainable extractive economies, in a refreshing development to her previous work.

She shows us the abundance already given to us by the natural world. "Gratitude is a motive force", she says, by which we can reformulate the exchange of commodities in a broken economy.

To have this work read by the author is a priceless gift. Her knowledge is a braided river of botanical and indigenous wisdom, but beneath it all is a simple, elemental truth, settled like the silt in a moonlit pond. You will be held by the hand as you navigate devastating realities and arrive at a surprisingly hopeful conclusion: we can, and must, build a new 'economy' to run alongside mixed market capitalism, and no effort towards this will be wasted. On the contrary, to participate in a gift-giving economy in any capacity is to seed the possibility of a more abundant life lived in greater harmony. By telling stories that explicitly demonstrate these more interdependent ways of being, ways that branch out into our extended communities and honour the teachings of indigenous communities and plants themselves, the author convinces us that this economy will grow and enrich our personal lives, even as GDP shrinks and resources deplete. "All flourishing is mutual", Kimmerer reminds us.

On top of all this, Kimmerer knows how to write a damn book. Her ability to construct a sentence is a remarkable gift. It is a privilege to witness the continued development of one of today's most essential thought leaders, a necessary addition to a rich but all too spare archive of work on ecology and economics.

Perfect book for Christmas

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