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The Overstory

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The Overstory

By: Richard Powers
Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
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About this listen

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.

©2018 Richard Powers (P)2018 Random House Audiobooks Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Metaphysical & Visionary Political Inspiring Heartfelt Thought-Provoking

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Critic reviews

"Really, just one of the best novels, period." (Ann Patchett)

"The best book I’ve [listened to] in ten years." (Emma Thompson)

"Dazzlingly written." (Robert Macfarlane)
All stars
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In a way, this novel tells us more about the understory than The Overstory. In spite of painting a world, ours, on the brink of disaster, it gives us defiance against so called ‘human progress’, sensitive intelligence towards and solidarity with Nature, a generous love of humanity, and, most of all, the possibility of redemption for our crimes against the Earth. And trees are the giant heroes of this story in an astonishingly empathetic, intelligent and generous way.
The rich, poetical, inventive, beautiful language of Richard Powers is a joy to listen to. And the reader conveys all these and the strength of the story perfectly.
Some readers might find this novel periphrastic and over long, but, in my opinion, this format could be seen as an almost pictorial representation of the shape and nature of trees themselves - trunks, growing, expanding, intertwining branches, leaves and roots.
Wonderful and necessary reading.

Extraordinary

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This takes me to places that need 20 years to understand. Listening in a spring under lockdown has been a solace.

Lockdown literature

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The topic is very important and I was initially captivated by setting up the human vignettes around a type of tree. But the characters were never really developed, just stylized. And the details on the trees got to be a bit mind-numbing. I have about 5 hours to go, but not sure I will make it.

Too tangential on the technical

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It's a terrifying story beautifully told. It makes me wonder if I would have lived my life differently if I'd read it at twenty. I hope I'm not an aggressive spore blighting a beautiful thing but I'm not sure.

The best book I ever read

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I learnt so much about trees and history from this book. Definitely one to listen to over and over again.

wonderful book

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