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The Overstory: The million-copy global bestseller and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction by [Richard Powers]

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Richard Powers

The Overstory: The million-copy global bestseller and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Kindle Edition

by Richard Powers (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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THE MILLION-COPY GLOBAL BESTSELLER and WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION

'It changed how I thought about the Earth and our place in it' Barack Obama

'Really, just one of the best novels, period' Ann Patchett

A wondrous, exhilarating novel about nine strangers brought together by an unfolding natural catastrophe. The perfect literary escape.

An artist inherits a hundred years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut. 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. An Air Force crewmember in the Vietnam War is shot out of the sky, then saved by falling into a banyan.

This is the story of these and five other strangers, each summoned in different ways by the natural world, who are brought together in a last stand to save it from catastrophe.

'It's not possible for Powers to write an uninteresting book' Margaret Atwood

'Radical and exciting' Jessie Burton

'Breathtaking' Barbara Kingsolver

Print length

493 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Vintage Digital
Publication date

11 April 2019
File size

6418 KB
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Autumn makes me think of leaves, which makes me think of trees, which makes me think of The Overstory, the best novel ever written about trees, and really, just one of the best novels, period. -- Ann Patchett

[The Overstory is] the best book I’ve read in ten years. It’s a remarkable piece of literature, and the moment it speaks to is climate change. So, for me, it’s a lodestone. It’s a mind-opening fiction, and it connects us all in a very positive way to the things that we have to do if we want to regain our planet. We’ve got lots and lots of trees where we live in Scotland. If I’m feeling unwell or unsettled in any way, I always go and sit with a tree or walk through the trees, and that’s incredibly healing and helpful -- Emma Thompson ― New York Times

An extraordinary novel … It’s an astonishing performance …He’s incredibly good at describing trees, at turning the science into poetry …The book is full of ideas … Like Moby-Dick, The Overstory leaves you with a slightly adjusted frame of reference … Some of what was happening to his characters passed into my conscience, like alcohol into the bloodstream, and left a feeling behind of grief or guilt, even after I put it down. Which is one test of the quality of a novel. ― Guardian

The time is ripe for a big novel that tells us as much about trees as Moby-Dick does about whales … The Overstory is that novel and it is very nearly a masterpiece ... The encyclopaedic powers of Powers extend from the sciences to the literary classics. On almost every page of The Overstory you will find sentences that combine precision and vision. You will learn new facts about trees ... [An] exhilarating read. ― The Times

[The Overstory] whirls together so many characters, so much research and such a jostle of intersecting ideas that, at times, it feels like a landbound companion to Moby-Dick’s digressional and obsessive whale tale ... One of the most thoughtful and involving novels I’ve read for years ... This long book is astonishingly light on its feet, and its borrowings from real research are conducted with verve ... The propulsive style and the enthusiastic reverence of Powers’s writing about nature keep it whizzing through any amount of linked observations on literary criticism, political science and statistical analysis. It’s an extraordinary novel, alert to the large ideas and humanely generous to the small ones; in an age of cramped autofictions and self-scrutinising miniatures, it blossoms. ― Daily Telegraph --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Book Description

A monumental novel about trees and people by one of our most 'prodigiously talented' (The New York Times Book Review) novelists.
--This text refers to the paperback edition.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07QGWF9KH
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage Digital; 1st edition (11 April 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 6418 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 493 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 5,417 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 2 in Plants
- 12 in Metaphysical & Visionary Fiction (Books)
- 25 in Political Fiction (Books)

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14,949 ratings

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3 star		11%
2 star		3%
1 star		3%

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Briony

Wonderful novel

Reviewed in Australia on 30 July 2020

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I absolutely adored this novel and the intertwining stories of each of the protagonists. It reminded me of my life long love of tress and inspired me to think about what am I doing to help protect them? Do we really want a world without old growth forests. The engrossing characters and stories were an excellent way to deliver the urgent message of conservation and preservation. Just loved it. My favourite book this year.

2 people found this helpful

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Marie Norlander

A brilliant story told, hopefully, in time for man to take heed.

Reviewed in Australia on 25 August 2020

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The story that he tells of the complete dependence of humans on the forests of the world Is brilliantly told in a series of personal stories over several generations of different families. These generational stories are then linked together as the forests of the world are linked together in their underground root systems. This is a story that is brilliantly told and has made me look at trees and forests as their own living entity and not just a product to be exploited, be that for their beauty, timber, medicines etc. They are a living being in their own right and should be respected as such.

One person found this helpful

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Not my style

Reviewed in Australia on 20 February 2019

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I tried to like it but couldn't, gave up half way. I found the writing style to result in much of the story having too little depth to be satisfying. And there was a feeling that the characters were more like caricatures. There were bits that I did get absorbed by but not enough of them. I also got irritated by the writers inability to resist colloquialisms that were jarring to the flow.

One person found this helpful

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V Walsh

A long and winding road but well worth the effort

Reviewed in Australia on 24 January 2019

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Richard Powers takes us on a lengthy adventure that commences with a series of vignettes: short stories that feature often eccentric but endearing characters. The stories span centuries and continents, cultures and ethnicities. The middle section brings the characters together and beds down the overarching (overstorey) theme. After the excitement of the preceding character sketches, this middle section dragged a bit, weighed down by perhaps too much information about trees and forests. Maybe a little preachy - but I will have to think on this some more. The action picked up with some very engaging confrontations between loggers and tree-huggers (literally) and much, much more. I think this is a book that will stay with me for a long time. Some of the characters were particularly beautifully created and the relationships exquisite (Patty and Dennis for example). The structure of the book was clever; the language elegant. And the message is one that deserves repetition. Though we have long been aware of the ecological value of trees, this novel is a sustained entreaty to remember our obligations as custodians of this earth.

2 people found this helpful

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Sue Dwyer

“The best arguments in the world won’t change a person’s mind

Reviewed in Australia on 6 June 2018

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One of the characters in Richard Powers novel The Overstory says: “The best arguments in the world won’t change a person’s mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.” This is the amazing, emotional and powerful "good story" about the relationship between humans and trees, with whom we share 25 per cent of our genes. Read it and weep.

5 people found this helpful

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Andrew

Completely riveting.

Reviewed in Australia on 30 October 2018

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This book captivated me. I don't think I will look at tree the same way again, and nor should I. The Overstory should be required reading for every politician, leader and corporate CEO in the hope they will listen. But failing that, you, reading my review would be a fantastic start.

3 people found this helpful

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Linda Anderson

A Lot of Dead Wood

Reviewed in Australia on 9 September 2019

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I got lost in the undergrowth with this one. Boring, wordy and just plain unreadable. Not that I claim to have read it; struggling through the first chapter, skimming through even more, then giving up, is not reading a book. (The last time I read a book I disliked as much as this was Midnight’s Children.) Thank god I don’t have to study The Overstory. Not for me.

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Amazon Customer

Fascinating Trees

Reviewed in Australia on 7 September 2019

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This book was for our book club meeting otherwise I may not have read it! Thoroughly enjoyed the story and the characters. Beautifully written with much poetic imagery. The only drawback was I found in the last few chapters of the book some repetition and hence felt it was a bit long. Overall, I recommend it as a great read about the importance of trees in the ecological scheme of our planet!

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MisterHobgoblin

Seeing the wood despite the trees

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 August 2018

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I think it's fair to say that when Richard Powers gets an idea, he runs with it. The Overstory is a novel about trees. Every other sentence mentions a tree. The main characters each have a signature tree. And most of them converge to protect trees. The structure of the book itself is designed to resemble a tree - each character has a backstory that is a root; the stories converge in the longest section - the trunk; the characters diverge again into the crown; and then in the smallest section they produce the seeds of a future world.

And my goodness the book is long and involved. Most of the eight roots stories (featuring nine characters since two of them share a root - figuratively and literally) are novellas in their own right. We have a retired war veteran; a student; an academic who works out that trees communicate; a computer games designer; an intellectual copyright lawyer; a conceptual artist; a young Chinese American; and a psychologist. It should be a job of work to remember who they all are, but they are so well delineated and re-introduced that it is seldom a problem. Occasionally a couple of the characters blur but for the most part, they are quite distinct.

And most of them play some role in defending America's ancient forest from the logging corporations. They take on the might of business, government, law enforcement agencies and a sceptical wider public. They call into question the wisdom of using non-renewable natural resources; on the one hand it seems churlish not to use the bounties that nature provides; but on the other hand what happens when they are gone? For all the examples through history that Richard Powers calls into play, the one he doesn't reference is Easter Island - the people who cut down all their trees to lever up giant statues, offering no future source of wood to build boats. It's all well and good to assume that something else will turn up, but what if it doesn't?

Where some of the stories intersect, a couple of them don't. The computer games designer and the lawyer seem to have parallel narratives that are engaging, but somehow tangential to the overall novel. And those tangential links come right at the end. It is odd, but it does offer some relief from what would otherwise be some pretty intense eco-warrior battle stories.

The stories are deeply hooking. The strength of the worlds that are created; the complexity of the characters is quite wonderful. There is an overall editorial narrative, but for the most part the eco-message is done through the characters and the story. Many books fall into the trap of telling, not showing. The Overstory shows.

For me, the full power of the novel came through by the end of the Trunk section. The pressure built and built; we reached a glorious and terrible crescendo. After that, the timelines started to stretch and it felt as though the pressure had been let off. That doesn't mean the story didn't continue to develop - it did - but some of the passion that had driven the characters in their eco-crusade had gone. At first this felt like a disappointment, an anti-climax. But a few days after finishing the novel, it feels like a real strength. It shows the ageing and the decay which, as the book illustrates with trees, is what nourishes other species and future generations.

I came to The Overstory with no great love of Richard Powers (I struggled through Orfeo); and no great sympathy for tree-huggers. I surprised myself by loving the novel; being persuaded by the message; and getting ever so emotionally attached to some of the characters. The Booker Prize has its critics, but if it can get me to read novels of this quality - against my natural instincts - then it is a wonderful thing.

268 people found this helpful

Soze

Not for me

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 October 2018

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I dithered between 2 and 3 stars for this one. On the one hand I can appreciate it's a worthy book, well written, intelligent with some weighty and well meaning themes. It seems to have touched a lot of people. But the bottom line is, I found it breathtakingly boring and breathed a sigh of relief to finish it.

It starts with 9 vignettes, all unrelated beyond that the characters in each have a connection with trees. I quite enjoyed this part of the book, even if I couldn't really see where it was going. At times these short stories covered generations and were quite involving. The second part of the book joins the dots as these characters lives start to become entwined and the bond with trees deeper. They become eco-warriors, environmentalists, fighting against big business and tyranny. Further on, the book concerns us with their latter years, how these events went on to shape them and where they ended up. Make no mistake though, the most important character in the tale are the trees themselves. Powers informs us of the importance of nature and the ever presence of these long lived plants, encourages us to side with those who take a stand and makes no apologies for choosing his side.

This is all well and good and there's no doubt Powers tells us much that's worth listening to here. But for me, once the story proper starts it's all rather thin. I found few of the characters engaging and the story tedious, it's far too long and meanders constantly. Towards the end I was skim reading in a desperate effort to get it all over with. Whilst there are some twists towards the end of the second act, which attempt to cause emotional resonance later on, I just didn't care enough to be affected. Reading other reviews I'm clearly in the minority and this was the favourite to win the Booker but, beside admiring the prose and central concepts, this one left me entirely cold.

176 people found this helpful

Lola

Overwritten and slow-going.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 October 2018

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"The Overstory" is the most ambitious book on the Man Booker Prize shortlist this year, and I thought I would be moved and impressed by this epic. Sadly (for me), I was not. I caught my mind going elsewhere, my thoughts wandering and many times I had to re-read paragraphs (and sometimes even pages!), trying to concentrate on the narrative.

The book begins with a collection of short stories introducing readers to a group of individuals and their sometimes not so obvious connections to the trees. The rest (2/3) of the book brings these people together in an attempt to save our planet (starting with the US) from the deforestation.

I did not like the story, the characters, the pace. It all felt too long, too disconnected, too… aloof. I did not feel for any of the characters and it seems to me that all of them were not only connected by the same cause, but also that that were very similar, despite their profound differences.

It all felt overwritten and just so slow-going. And, despite of the importance of its subject, I cannot recommend this book – it was not a pleasant read.

104 people found this helpful

David L. Redmond-roche

Wonderful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 August 2018

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Just a wonderful book that I was lucky enough to read on holiday in the middle of a Finnish forest. The book of the year so far by some distance.

51 people found this helpful

Stephen

A book that will make you love trees and life

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 September 2018

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This is a long and complex book, but so worth the effort. The narrative follows eight different storylines, which weave and interconnect with each other in different ways. But all of them are united by trees. You don't need to know anything about trees, or be particularly fond of them - the book will teach you.

For en environmentalist, this is a really rewarding read. For others, I imagine it will seem a bit moralistic or even boring. On the other hand, I think the characters are compelling and interesting enough to hold your attention. At times, the range of meanings and messages that the author was trying to convey was a bit lost on me, but that didn't detract from the overall feel of the book.

Overall: a perfect book for me, but probably not for everyone.

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