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The Overstory

The million-copy global bestseller and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

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The Overstory

By: Richard Powers
Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
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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

 Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Metaphysical & Visionary Political Inspiring Heartfelt Thought-Provoking
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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
All stars
Most relevant
I still have goosebumps from the end. This was a wonderful book. True poetry as it works in so many levels. The narrator is fantastic. I just am sad it is over. However, now I am free to go and plant a tree in it’s honour...

Stunning

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The book filled my heart with wnder and admiration. It made me cry several times - of melancholic sadness but also of beauty and gratitude.

5/5

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Incredible listen!

I had read the written book also but wanted to follow up with reviewing it whilst on commute.

Fantastically done - a work of art!

Woah!!

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This is one of the greatest novels I have ever read.

The prose is beyond exquisite. The characters are visceral, intelligent and engaging. The imagination, consciousness and knowledge of author, Richard Powers, is enthralling and educational.

I have always loved trees but I feel even closer to them now, more protective of them and far more aware of their importance and necessity in the world they and we inhabit and I fear a world without them.

I often re-listened to sections to make sure I fully got the meaning and understanding of the author’s messages and insights and those of the trees and the novel’s characters . I am certain I will read the whole novel again one day as there’s so much to take in, so much to see, hear, notice and feel.

The descriptions of the environment, time and place as well as the unfolding events, are vivid and the dialogue is so natural, you never feel separate from the story.

The narrator has the perfect voice, tone and expressiveness to bring the book to life - her ability to swap from character to character and do that so brilliantly ensures the reader recognises who is who and what they are each about.

I loved this Overstory in a way words cannot describe, even though I have done my best to! And while some may find it a small challenge to get to grips with it in the early chapters, it is well worth the investment of continuing. You won’t be disappointed.

I will never ever be made to feel silly for hugging trees again! They need our love and respect… and if this story is anything to go by, the rewards could be life changing for the future of our planet.

Phenomenal, beautiful, heartbreaking… the trees tell the story…

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This book has come to me at a time in my life that I am ready for it. I am full of conviction .
2020 gave us a chance to see what damage our present way of life was doing. My husband and I retired and freed from the tyrany of work our focus turned to the appriciation of our local environment. We have been blessed with a great garden with7 trees to watch and beautiful plants to grow. We heard more bird song and bees hum in the absence of traffic and aeroplanes. Unfortunately in August 2021 people are moving back to their previous habits without a thought for nature.

The Overstory.

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