The Overstory

By: Richard Powers

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

Length: 22 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

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

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)

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.

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
Read it

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.

A book that haunts forever

As I finished the audiobook, outside rain pitter patters on leaves and the eucalyptuses murmur one message: ‘We will be here long after you have gone’.

The amount of research that went into this book is incredible

I found it hard in the beginning to jump from one set of vastly different characters and their surroundings to another and yet another but soon became accustomed and became deeply engaged with all of their stories. A deeply thought provoking book that induced a full range of emotions. I have to admit having a profound love for trees from childhood so I would possibly be regarded as biased.

A remarkable and complex effort.

This book has changed my life (as it should). Haunting, dazzling, daunting, superb, devastating and so, so BEAUTIFUL.

My life’s story!

This beautiful profound interweaving tale is the story of nine characters who learn to see and then fight for the natural world that the majority and powers that be, can’t seem to tear down fast enough.

Suspenseful, never predictable and filled with stories within stories of fateful injustices and human endeavour and creativity to counter. Each character uniquely lures and winds you in, as the story unfolds.

It was a shocking revelation of what’s gone on across my lifetime before my very eyes. Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring in 1962 and her love and awe for the natural world is echoed in the voice of Patricia Westerfield, a brilliant and dedicated scientist, alone in her seeing and victim to the cruelty that only Homo sapiens can inflict upon itself so artfully time and time again.

A recent history of sorts, so recent that it brings us to yesterday ( I write this as COP26 in Glasgow takes place ), raising questions we know we should rest upon but we’re are too busy to : when will we act to alter our insatiable habits? will artists and storytellers be our prophets? who owns the natural world really?will the internet save us or lead us to AI that like the natural world will be much smarter than we seem to be able to be?

And then I’m forgetting the voices of the trees that seem to climb over you as you listen to this tale. Richard powers has researched so thoroughly the worlds of The Overstory but he clearly knows and loves trees for every mention is a reminder to look closer and be stiller. And finally, Suzanne Toren voices each character with such veracity and tenderness and narrates superbly. I am so grateful to have listened to this beautiful book.

Excellent writing, intriguing plot

Beautiful language and lovely to read but it is a very long and drawn out plot. Still it gives a powerful message.