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Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Discuss | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
A Novel
by Richard Powers
Book Reviewed by:"The best novel ever written about trees, and really just one of the best novels, period." —Ann Patchett
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize
New York Times Bestseller
A New York Times Notable Book and a Washington Post, Time, Oprah Magazine, Newsweek, Chicago Tribune, and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2018
The Overstory 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.
Excerpt
The Overstory
First there was nothing. Then there was everything.
Then, in a park above a western city after dusk, the air is raining messages. A woman sits on the ground, leaning against a pine. Its bark presses hard against her back, as hard as life. Its needles scent the air and a force hums in the heart of the wood. Her ears tune down to the lowest frequencies. The tree is saying things, in words before words.
It says: Sun and water are questions endlessly worth answering.
It says: A good answer must be reinvented many times, from scratch.
It says: Every piece of earth needs a new way to grip it. There are more ways to branch than any cedar pencil will ever find. A thing can travel everywhere, just by holding still.
The woman does exactly that. Signals rain down around her like seeds.
Talk runs far afield tonight. The bends in the alders speak of long-ago disasters. Spikes of pale chinquapin flowers shake down their pollen; soon they will turn into spiny fruits. ...
Here are some of the comments posted about The Overstory.
You can see the full discussion here.
"The best arguments in the world won't change a person's mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story." Do you agree?
Having retired from a healthcare background, we repeatedly had to "show the data". Most intelligent, non-self centered people do seem to respond to data. I have found though, that most often, self-centered people simply wont change their mind, ... - BuffaloGirl
Are there any quotes in the book that resonated with you?
Over the years, I have kept a small three ring binder filled with quotes from the various books I have read. I have the following from THE OVERSTORY:
Dennis tells Patricia that the loggers say"Lets go let a little light in that swamp." Forests ... - MarieA
Are you comfortable with quiet, or do you feel the need to fill the void?
Very comfortable with the quiet. I think most readers are, but I also don't think that most humans, or at least Americans, realize what real quiet is. We are so used to the hum of appliances, traffic on nearby roads or streets, jets flying overhead... - BuffaloGirl
Did Mimi Ma Make the right decision to sell the family heirloom?
To be honest, I wasn't sure when reading the book, if Mimi did sell the family heirloom. I think either way she decided, it would have been a correct decision. - BuffaloGirl
Did you know that so many early cultures valued trees? Why do you think that was? And why is it no longer true, for the most part?
Most early cultures lived in and as a part of nature rather than separate from it as most of the world's population does now. Rather than living cooperatively, we now believe that we have to dominate every aspect of nature and use it not only for ... - BuffaloGirl
Pulitzer Prize
2019
Many glowing adjectives can be used to describe a novel by Richard Powers: brilliant, moving, mesmerizing. But one word succinctly captures the feeling I come away with every time I put a novel of his down: awe. Of course, given that I look forward to a new Powers novel just as eagerly as my daughter waited for the next in the Harry Potters series, I will be the first one to admit I come to the table already biased. But Powers meets my ridiculously high expectations every single time. He does it again with The Overstory, a sprawling, messy, breathtaking and yes...awe-inspiring tome about trees...continued
Full Review
(616 words)
(Reviewed by Poornima Apte).
Bill McKibben
This book is beyond special. Richard Powers manages to turn trees into vivid and engaging characters, something that indigenous people have done for eons but that modern literature has rarely if ever even attempted. It's not just a completely absorbing, even overwhelming book; it's a kind of breakthrough in the ways we think about and understand the world around us, at a moment when that is desperately needed Thomas McGuane
The Overstory is a visionary, accessible legend for the planet that owns us, its exaltation and its peril, a remarkable achievement by a great writer.
In The Overstory, a few of the characters become environmental activists in order to save the wealth of forests in the American West and Pacific Northwest. In the novel, Richard Powers refers to many save-the-trees efforts around the globe, including the Chipko Andolan in the 1970s in the Himalayan region of India.
Chipko Andolan literally translates to Stick (as in cling) Protest, as the mostly women who took part in the struggle against logging companies stood their ground by wrapping their arms around the trees that were scheduled to be felled.
The Chipko Andolan was born in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (the region of the Himalayas where it originated is now part of a new state, Uttarakhand). India and China went to ...
If you liked The Overstory, try these:
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Published 2024
A sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those who inhabit it across the centuries—a daring, moving tale of memory and fate from the Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Piano Tuner and The Winter Soldier.
by Richard Powers
Published 2024
A magisterial new novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning and New York Times best-selling author of The Overstory and Bewilderment.
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by Christina Lynch
In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.
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