The Butterfly Season

What 64 Butterflies Taught Me About Nature's Great Mysteries and the Meaning of Life

By: Lea Korsgaard, Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg - translator

Lea Korsgaard’s number-one international bestseller tells the story of the year she spent tracking every species of butterfly in her native Denmark. Suffused with beauty and wonder, The Butterfly Season is a love letter to the natural world and an unforgettable reflection on the precious and fleeting nature of life itself.

Combining nature writing, philosophy, myth, and science, The Butterfly Season is a luminous account of one woman’s quest to see all sixty-four species of butterflies native to Denmark in a single year. Part field diary, part mythological tapestry, part existential reflection, Lea Korsgaard’s journey unfolds across seasons and geographies, through meadows, marshes, and ancient coastal lands, as she discovers the mysteries and miracles of the natural world.

On the first day of the year, Korsgaard sat at her desk, making a list. It was a typically cold, quiet January day, and the possibility of the new year—of new discoveries and new challenges—reawakened an old dream of hers: to see every Danish butterfly species in one year. At first, the goal felt impossible—Korsgaard knew almost nothing about butterflies—but she persevered, creating a color-coded tracking system that mapped butterfly regions and flight times with meticulous care. As the project developed, what was at first a simple exercise in discovery became an intimate reckoning with transformation and rebirth, the butterfly’s fleeting existence knitting together beginnings, endings, and the life made in between.

Critic reviews

“The Butterfly Season is an inspiring love letter to the magic of the natural world, in all its beauty and complexity and joy—an unforgettable reminder that wonder awakens the heart.” —Amy Tan, New York Times bestselling author of The Backyard Bird Chronicles

“A marvel. . . . Luminous. . . . Korsgaard reveals how even the most delicate creature can illuminate our deepest human longings. This is a book about attention, about wonder, and about that most fragile yet persistent human instinct: hope. After reading it, you may find yourself looking more closely at the world—and believing, once again, in its small miracles.” —Suleika Jaouad, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Alchemy and Between Two Kingdoms

“Part Quixotic quest, part scientific exploration, part intimate memoir, The Butterfly Season invites us to look closer—at butterflies, at the natural world, at the very fragile wonder of being alive—and reminds us that the simple act of slowing down and paying attention may be, simply put, life’s most important lesson. A beautifully written, tender, joy-filled knockout.” —Isaac Fitzgerald, New York Times bestselling author of Dirtbag, Massachusetts and American Rambler