The Overstory

By: Richard Powers

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

Brought to you by Penguin.

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2019
SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A wondrous, exhilarating novel about nine strangers brought together by an unfolding natural catastrophe

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.

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

'The best book I've read in ten years' Emma Thompson

'Dazzlingly written' Robert Macfarlane

© Richard Powers 2018 (P) Penguin Audio 2018

Critic reviews

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... (EMMA THOMPSON)

Dazzlingly written... Among the best novels I've read this decade (ROBERT MACFARLANE, author of Underland)

A novel about the natural world - trees specifically - and our power as human beings to destroy it or redeem it. It reminds me that we are all connected and that there is still time to make things right (TAYARI JONES, author of An American Marriage)

An extraordinary novel... It's an astonishing performance... The Overstory leaves you with a slightly adjusted frame of reference

Should be mandatory reading the world over (EMILIA CLARKE)

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

One of the most thoughtful and involving novels I've read for years... Extraordinary

Absolutely blown away by this epic, heartbreaking novel about us and trees (EMMA DONOGHUE, author of Room and The Pull of the Stars)

[A] majestic redwood of a novel... Combines the multi-narrative approach of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas with a paean to the grandeur and wonder of trees... It is fitting that it ends with a message of hope

A rare specimen: a Great American Eco-Novel... It will change the way you look at trees

À Sophoclean Tragedy for the times of the Climate Crisis

And what a wonderful performance. A pleasure to listen to, an inspiration to take in.

The most difficult book you have to read

This story is the literary mirror that you will struggle to look into. It's beautifully written; poetic at times and at times, pure story-telling in the ancient ways that stories were told. Full of myth-in-the-making it tells of the anti-heros that in time will become the seeds of gods. It will be very difficult to read at times because the truth hurts, but you will feel lighter, wiser and More when you are done.

Enchanting, tragic, hopeful

Enchanting - I am an artist by profession, with a fascination for forests and trees and have done many works centred around this subject matter. Richard Powers' prose inspired an other world level of appreciation and awareness for me. I loved the intertwining stories of the main characters to trees and each other.

Tragic - A work of fiction I know, but so much of it is based on truths and reality. What humans do! Have done and continue to do to the environment. Every human should read this story.

Hopeful - That should people wake up to the true value of trees and breathe in the beauty and wonder of forests there will be hope. And having said that they will recover if left in peace, in spite of humans.

I do agree that there was a point at which the story could have ended earlier than it did but I for one was glad to hear more. In fact I listened to the book twice for any hidden intricacies that I may have missed first time round and to repeat the magic of the book's true heros : the trees. I loved it.

The reader's voice I found to be rather austere for my taste. If you feel the same (listening to the sample) don't let it put you off... she does a great job all the same.

Changed forevet

Brilliantly written and read. I wished it could have lasted longer. Deserved rhe man booker prize.

Important book extraordinary narration

This book seems like it has timeless relevance. An incredible feat of writing. So rare that there is such deep ecological insight, such deep human psyche insight and written with poetic grace. It blends art and science with the human condition’s idiosyncrasies. Amazing
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