The Overstory: A Novel
Book details
Summary
Description
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction
#1 New York Times Bestseller
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize
A New York Times Notable Book and a Washington Post, Time, Oprah Magazine, Newsweek, Chicago Tribune, and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
"The best novel ever written about trees, and really just one of the best novels, period." ―Ann Patchett
The Overstory, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, is a sweeping, impassioned work 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, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel 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. 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.
Reader reviews
We would LOVE it if you could help us and other readers by reviewing the book
1 - 4 of 4 reviews
I enjoyed the book very much
Reading this eloquent commentary on our relationship to the natural world - specifically, trees - and eco-activism is a peak life experience - I was awake many late hours reading it & attaching post-its to pages that raised particularly compelling points. When I finished reading it, my conclusion was that everyone needs a copy. I have gifted it to family & friends & will continue to do so.
I bought this book for pleasure reading. I like that it is a collection of short stories, all interweaving persons and trees.
A wonderful story. The writing is lyrical, and the author brings extensive knowledge of botany, politics, the eco movement, logging, literature, and history. It was a long book and I was sorry to have it end.
The chapters come together and branch in an organic manner - in fact, the sections are named for parts of a tree.
Very little to dislike. The story of the couple seemed rather remote from the rest of the threads, but it was interesting in its own right and did underscore the theme of the rest of the novel.
