New York Times Bestseller A monumental novel about trees and people by one of our most “prodigiously talented” (The New York Times Book Review) novelists. An Air Force loadmaster in the Vietnam War is shot out of the sky, then saved by falling into a banyan. An artist inherits a hundred years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut. A hard-partying undergraduate in … A hard-partying undergraduate in the late 1980s electrocutes herself, dies, and is sent back into life by creatures of air and light. A hearing- and speech-impaired scientist discovers that trees are communicating with one another. These four, and five other strangers–each summoned in different ways by trees–are brought together in a last and violent stand to save the continent’s few remaining acres of virgin forest.
In his twelfth novel, National Book Award winner Richard Powers delivers a sweeping, impassioned novel of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of–and paean to–the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, The Overstory unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond, exploring the essential conflict on this planet: the one taking place between humans and nonhumans. There is a world alongside ours–vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.
The Overstory is a book for all readers who despair of humanity’s self-imposed separation from the rest of creation and who hope for the transformative, regenerating possibility of a homecoming. If the trees of this earth could speak, what would they tell us? “Listen. There’s something you need to hear.”
more
Alerts us to how intertwined we all are as humans with nature. And how the lives of trees have much to teach us about how we need to live with care and respect for each other. Beautifully written, the words carry you along.
It’s impossible to describe this book. It’s layered like the rings of a tree or the ages of human civilization. You “feel” this story rather than read it. Be patient with it, and find the treasure.
Amazingly insightful and inciteful with utterly mind-bending turns of phrase. You’ll never look at a tree the same way again. There are no limits to what we can and must understand.
A real masterpiece. Sweeping in scope, moving, thoroughly researched. I felt as though I was entering a better, more thoughtful world each time I opened it. In parts terrifying but also ultimately hopeful. It has a particular resonance today as we race along a road that must run out. Overstory tells of nine people whose lives become centred around trees, their place in our society, their safety and their importance. But it is so much more — there is love, despair, the search for a meaningful life, the peculiar passion of idealists, computer games, migration — this is a mighty novel that will stay with me for a long time.
A beautifully told story. Learn about trees and forests, learn about environment, and about yourself.
This book was a little hard for me to get into, but it one of those books that can change the way a reader sees the world. It is deep and profound. And poetic. Where I was blind, I now see.
For me it was well worth reading.
Beautifully written. Engaging and informative. It made me take a second look at the forest-like neighborhood I live in with a renewed appreciation.
Rare book that made me slow down to see what is in plain sight.
I live in Oregon, home of thousands of beautiful ancient trees. This amazing book has given me even more reverence for these amazing giants. The writing is exceptional as are the many stories within the story. Robert Power’s brilliant writing is strong and compelling. One of the best books I’ve ever read.
A highly-structured, long novel that reads like a poem: an ode to trees and their place in evolution; a warning that our species had better wake up and cooperate with nature–commit “unsuicide” in the novel’s terms. The characters are imaginative symbols of human tendencies and predicaments, not people you grow to inhabit and love. But the whole thing coheres.
Powerful. Well written. Take time to let it bring you into its power and characters.
You have to enjoy the craftiness of using trees to tell the story, always telling us about trees, always circling around trees, always respectful–a well-researched, well-written affair with trees. The momentum forward through history in this novel is compelling, especially if you have lived through much of that history yourself (the last half of the twentieth century) and remember some of those events and headlines–the activists of North America trying to save old-growth forests, their passion and their sacrifices, how you resonated with them and how you did not. The range of characters is important, even if this sometimes reminded me of a more literary James Michener and his scope and range of characters. We write out of a love for the world and Powers more than most.
This is the one I keep telling everyone I meet that they HAVE TO READ! I started reading it several months ago and set it aside because at first it seemed like just a series of short stories. When I picked it up again I began to understand what Powers was doing. Yes, this book is about trees, but it’s about trees in the way that Italian cooking is about tomatoes (I borrowed that metaphor from somewhere—thank you!). Each of the nine (9!) main characters has their own relationship with trees and what you will learn about trees in this book is something we all need to know as our environment hovers on the brink of disaster. You will also love the characters and how their lives—which seem so distinct and separate at first—intertwine. Just like the trees.
When my book club chose “The Overstory,” I thought, “Ugh. A book about trees. ” I was not looking forward to reading it. But I’m so glad I did. It is a remarkable book, and I will never look at trees–or our environment–in the same way.
The characters are well-developed, and the way the author ties the various branches of the story together is fascinating. I did enjoy the first two thirds of the book a lot more than the last third, but I’d still recommend the book. I learned SO much, and I now feel more frightened than ever about the future of our planet.
Thought-provoking, passionate, epic novel about our relationship to the natural world—specifically, the world of trees. I originally gave this book four stars as it plods and repeats three-fourths of the way through, but because I feel significantly changed by it—can’t stop thinking of all I learned— particularly about the ancient intelligence and tremendously intricate root system of trees—the brilliance through which they communicate with each other, I upped it to a five. Definitely, worth the Pulitzer it received.
A deeply thoughtful novel. Once again Richard Powers goes to a completely different place than in his previous books. Here we are invited to try and understand the intelligence and persistence of a forest, and the will to live of a tree. The actions of humans around trees–to understand, to exploit, to protect–all seem ephemeral in the face of the deep knowledge of an old-growth forest, roots deeply woven like neurons in a net, that could be hundreds of millions of years old. What’s being lost is incalculable. Each character comes to understand himself, her own actions, through their increasing appreciation of the true nature of trees. Powers evokes that through his mastery of language and keen perception of human motivation. Each character is searching, forced to an unknown path by early life trauma; they find each other through a happenstance that is driven by their search. As with other work of Powers, it is completely fantastic and completely authentic. No one could meet like that and upend their lives as these characters do; yet he pulls it off with eloquent aplomb. As the characters age we see that their early choices have guided the development of their inner lives; each takes the path that only s/he could take. We cry for human destruction of the forest, but it is a suicide mission. We can’t live without the forest, this novel argues, but the forest can live without us. Highly recommended.
Small, imperfect, lovely, lonely, haunting, inspiring lives linked together by that constant of the natural world – Trees.
Never has ecofiction read so beautifully.
In Part 1: Roots each vignette streams into the next, pouring light into darkness, hope and hurt springing up like seedlings with interwoven roots. Each of the following parts draws these lives even closer together, into a gorgeous canopy of mankind & the natural world. The book leaves you with a renewed sense of value — you value the lives of the poor and plodding people equally with those of the quick-witted and hyper-driven people. All of these damaged people are full of their own desires, that despite their vast differences, are very much alike. They share an existence despite differences in time, age, culture, and location… because the natural world around them directly or indirectly infiltrates their tiny but hugely important lives.
This is my new favorite book
This is one of the best books I’ve ever read. I’m quite sure I will carry it in my heart for the rest of my life. Beautiful, tragic, utterly relevant.
Beautiful writing. Terrific characters. Brilliant background understanding of trees, forests and the natural world. Wonderful interweaving of storylines.