Becoming Forest opens
with Aishling—the young Irish woman at the heart of this story—as she visits
her grandmother in California following her grandfather’s death. Aishling finds
her grandfather’s journal and reads about a trip he made to India years ago to
visit the original Bodhi Tree, the place where the Buddha found enlightenment.
At the end of the journal, she finds a letter addressed to
her from her grandfather asking for her help passing along his message of “deep
security” to her generation as they deal with the climate crisis and the
uncertain future ahead. Aishling goes to India to follow in her grandfather’s
path to find a way of responding to his request. There she meets and falls in
love with a young Buddhist monk, who is also on a quest. As they walk together along
the roads of India, they
