The First Thousand Trees

Henryk Mandrusiak, finding nothing left for him in his community following his best friend Reid’s departure, travels through the devastated land in search of a new place to call home.

“One of the most unique and engaging voices in genre fiction.” — Booklist

“In this rich and nuanced universe, Mohamed offers an emotionally fierce and human story that takes the time and space to personalize apocalypse.” — Quill & Quire, starred review

After making a grievous mistake that ended in death, Henryk Mandrusiak feels increasingly ostracized within his own community, and after the passing on of his parents and the departure of his best friend, Reid, there is little left to tie him to the place he calls home. Henryk does something he never expected: he sets out into the harsh wilds alone, in search of far-flung family. He finds his uncle’s village, but making a life for himself in this unfriendly new place — rougher and more impoverished than the campus where he grew up — isn’t easy. Henryk strives to carve out a place of his own but learns that some corners of his broken world are darker than he could have imagined.

This stunning novella concludes the story Mohamed started in The Annual Migration of Clouds and continued in We Speak Through the Mountain, bleaker than ever but still in search of a spark of hope in the climate apocalypse.

Premee Mohamed is a Nebula-, World Fantasy–, and Aurora Award–winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, AB. She is the author of the Beneath the Rising series of novels, as well as several novellas, and her short fiction has appeared in many venues.

ISBN: 9781770417342
Format: Paperback
Pages: 136
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: September 30, 2025