Chapter 4 Summary

In chapter four, the world of trees into which Cosimo has climbed grows in the reader's perspective from covering their yard and the neighbors' to reaching well beyond even Ombrossa. As Cosimo bragged to Viola, they stretch from Rome to Spain throughout all of the countryside between. Biagio laments the loss of that thick and ancient cover of trees in the years since he watched his brother in the trees, and blames the French invasion for the transformation of the European countryside. In a hypnotically lovely set of paragraphs, he describes in palpable detail the varieties of trees and thickness with which they filled the sky.

Cosimo, he explains, is the first to really delve into the possible mobility this lush collection of trees provide. He describes the strategy and skill with which Cosimo bgins devising routes through the trees, and the agility...