Rootstalk by Ella Duffy

“It is the nature of woodland to be in on a secret”

Rootstalk is written in five voices, some drawn from myth, others from historical accounts, all re-imagined. The lives of these characters are shaped by the Ghost Orchid (Epipogium aphyllum), one of the rarest wild orchids, which spends most of its life underground and flowers once every decade or so. In Rootstalk, the Ghost Orchid becomes the point of fascination and search, of longing, loss and reconciliation.