Herbarium is a work of eco-fiction of startling ambition and talent. Growing up in Dubai with his parents, Tipu is a sensitive little boy more at home in the glow of video games than in the natural landscapes his mother, Fatima, adores. But during a weekend trip, Tipu's world of whimsy is upended. Like a transplanted seedling, he comes to live at his mother's childhood home in Kerala, where he is surrounded by the traces of her past-handwritten notes, pressed flowers and leafs, & the stories people remember her by. In the hush of groves and unspoken wounds carried over generations in their community, Tipu begins to see the world through his mother's eyes.