The Overstory, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of-and paean to-the natural world. 'The best novel ever written about trees, and really just one of the best novels, period.' -Ann Patchett Over One Year on the New York Times Bestseller ListĪ New York Times Notable Book and a Washington Post, Time, Oprah Magazine, Newsweek, Chicago Tribune, and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year Logan Farmer, Old Firehouse Books, Fort Collins, CO I pity the next customer who comes into our store looking for ‘a book about trees’ because Powers has given me a lot to talk about.” With writing that is dense but accessible, Powers is a master at intersecting science, art, and spirituality without sacrificing plot. More than that, it’s an incredibly human story with a huge cast of richly imagined characters that you’ll never forget. It’s a riveting call to arms and a bitter indictment of our wasteful culture. “I can’t stop thinking about this book! A sprawling, literary eco-epic, The Overstory is the kind of novel that changes people. Brad Johnson, East Bay Booksellers, Oakland, CA Summer 2019 Reading Group Indie Next List As we are instructed near the novel's end, 'What you make from a tree should be at least as miraculous as what you cut down.' Plainly put: The Overstory is perhaps as close to such a miracle as we currently deserve.” Until, that is, we look, or prefer, finally, to see. Powers' most beautiful sentences are also the most devastating, which hints at the novel's hope that death - whether of a person or a plant - is never quite the end that it seems. Such links between the human and non-human are mostly hidden to us, but only because we tend not to look very closely (or prefer not to see). “The Overstory, which contains an energy like that of the trees that link its intertwining stories, is nothing short of stunning.

The overstory book reviews