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The Overstory cover art

The Overstory

Written by: Richard Powers
Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
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Publisher's Summary

Pulitzer Prize, Fiction, 2019

A monumental novel about reimagining our place in the living world, by one of our most "prodigiously talented" novelists (New York Times Book Review).

The Overstory unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fable that range from antebellum New York to the late 20th-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

An air force loadmaster in the Vietnam War is shot out of the sky, then saved by falling into a banyan. An artist inherits 100 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.

These and five other strangers, each summoned in different ways by trees, are brought together in a last and violent stand to save the continent's few remaining acres of virgin forest. 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.

©2018 Richard Powers (P)2018 Recorded Books

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What listeners say about The Overstory

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A life-changing read

This is perhaps the best - and most spiritual (in a non-religious way) - book I've ever "read" and the narration is exquisite, generously enhancing the story's telling. Initially, I thought I had gotten into a rather copious tome of short stories, a genre of literature to which I normally am not drawn. However, the skillful development of the disparate characters in the first part of the novel (Roots), was both intriguing and engaging, leading to the intertwining of lives in the "Trunk" section. By then, I was hooked and continuously champing at the bit to get back to listening. I have always loved trees, but through The Overstory, I was awakened to a complexity of life that had never occurred to me, despite having a long-held philosophical/spiritual belief in the "oneness" of life. This novel has significantly increased my engagement with the forests along the trails I walk on a daily basis. I must emphasize that it is not a textbook, nor is it "preachy. It is simply a darn good story - rich in character, plot and imagery. I am grateful to have been directed to this book by a friend who had selected it for our book club discussion in September. I think every human being should read it.

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20 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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beautifully written. boring story.

the language in his book is so descriptive it brings the story to life easily. unfortunately, the story it describes is incredibly boring. i kept waiting for a great life changing moment of insight that never came

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Trees demonstrate life going on

eeling of poetry flows through the book connecting life together through the life of trees. The trees go on through generations. Life’s going someplace much more than we humans will ever know. A hope for life stopping harm we wrought on each other.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Important perspectives

Richard Powers has written a good and important story, saying many things that need to be said. You should read it. I look forward to reading the author’s next book, which may say similar things in a more concise way that my busy friends might be able to read. A minor point: I would have preferred a reader with less tension in her voice for the audiobook. As a biologist, this story weaves together many of the thoughts I have had while learning about the co-evolutionary history of the tree of life, and learning of the harm that humanity is doing to the atmosphere, the oceans, the soils, and all that life depends upon. It is a great shame that, though humans are the only creature capable of foresight, of seeing that we are charging toward a cliff, this current dominant culture seems incapable of restraint or even shifting direction. Despite all our human abilities, we behave like bacteria, doubling their numbers in a test tube, using all available resources until reaching the inevitable carrying capacity, overshoot and crash. It is a terrible shame that we appear poised to end the age of mammals and take with us the miracles of tigers, whales, bears, wolves, antelope, and other primates. Will some bird, some rats, some cockroaches and mushrooms survive to launch the next evolutionary explosion? Or is this it, and Earth will spiral towards the climate of Venus, incompatible to life? Or could a good story revive the wisdom of other cultures, the knowledge of how to live in balance, of how to take less? Or might a harsher pandemic reduce human numbers back to sustainable levels before the climate hits a tipping point? The world is so beautiful, even now, even as we have experienced the first heat dome and it appears we are over the edge. It is hard to watch the fall, to know that such great change and loss is my and my children’s future. Even now my human brain seeks denial of climate and environmental limitations and hopes that just maybe we will discover another continent or two so we can carry on living as kings, despite what I know of trends and science. We have choices we can still make. Each choice to limit our personal environmental footprint gives a greater wedge of possibility for future life. Could this book help shift our culture? Or is culture so fragmented by self-reinforcing eco chambers that those who most need this message will never hear it?

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4 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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So average

I found this book almost nauseating. Stories weren’t interesting to me at all and neither were the characters. The author obviously did a lot of research on trees.

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4 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Tedious

High hopes lead to long dissapointment, it took a lot of will power to finish it, sorry!

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful, intelligent, and touching

This is a great listen. The writing is beautiful, touching, and intelligent. The performance is very good, Suzanne Toren succeeds in giving each character their own voice, without overdoing it to the degree of annoyance. The story is an important one for our times, and it is written in such a way as to not be overly moralistic or dramatic.

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2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Eco-terrorism - justified or repugnant?

The story follows multiple generations several areas of the USA, eventually settling on the lives of nine people, centred on a character based on the real life forest ecologist Suzanne Simard who draws parallels between humans and trees (really!). Regardless of your believes about trees, eco-terrorism, and murder cover-up, the story is well written and well narrated.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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trees and humanities

Intense long listen. Sobering story, intriguing characters and heartbreaking tale of the trees and our time on the planet.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Profoundly remarkable storytelling necessary for our time

This book weaves together some of the most thoroughly succinct metaphors for the ways in which life currently exists in the world today. It is impossible to come away from this story without some sort of new revelations upon the significance of humans’ place in the scope of life. One of the best writers date, heightened by the wonderful telling performed by Suzanne Toren. Can’t recommend it enough! Thank you.

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2 people found this helpful