The Overstory cover art

The Overstory

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Overstory

By: Richard Powers
Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £13.33

Buy Now for £13.33

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.

'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

Featured article: The top trending BookTok audiobooks


For audiobook lovers, nothing comes close to the feeling of stumbling upon a new favourite adventure, love story, or thriller. Finding that new favourite is now easier than ever! The world of BookTok is overflowing with audiobooks ready to become your new obsession....

Featured article The top trending BookTok audiobooks

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
If you are a ’book-reading-person’; read this book. If you are not a ‘book-reading-person’, this is part of what you are missing out on. You can however love the Overstory anyhow in the forest.

I read “The Secret Life of Trees” by Peter Wohlleben two summers ago. The Overstory is for me a refresher and reminder of the awe we owe life - and trees, told through the lives of people connected to them, as we are; every one of us.

Aaah! Brilliant.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
good story with well written characters. it has made me think about trees differently. the writing is almost poetic. I think the ending was a bit disappointing but a great book beautifully read.

so good I listened twice

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
excellent narration, beautifully executed. I enjoyed all of this from start to finish. recommend

five stars from me for this book about trees

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The premise and purpose if this book is about slow development being it's own reward, so I should not be too disappointed at how long it took me to complete it. With little free time, this book did feel like a slog in the short times I had, but I felt I had learnt something by the end. I love that in literature, so am so glad I persevered.

Clever and Fascinating but Slow throughout

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is sweeping in its scope and vision, with many interlocking stories and characters, and an interesting format. However, I found it overly long, not helped by the slow narration. It’s the only book I’ve ever read on 1.2x speed, and there were still whole portions of it where I found it dragged. Despite this, I would thoroughly recommend it - it’s both thought provoking, and entertaining. I found it the perfect accompaniment to my regular walks in nature.

Such a beautiful book, but long

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews