The Overstory

Paperback Published on: 29/08/2024
Price: £10.99
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Bookseller Reviews

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The Overstory
A Fascinating Exploration
The Overstory is a compelling novel by Powers which beautifully highlights the importance of trees and their interconnectedness to the lives of humans thro... READ MORE
James at Lancaster Corn Market
The Overstory
'You can’t come back to something that is gone.'
'The best arguments in the world won't change a person's mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.' What an absolute gem of a book! I'd only ... READ MORE
Jen
The Overstory
Lives in my head rent free
The Overstory is a beautiful book about the importance of trees and specifically the myriad of ways that they change our lives on a daily basis, through mo... READ MORE
Leah at Stratford @leahreadslit

Synopsis

THE MILLION-COPY GLOBAL BESTSELLER AND WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION

'Radical and exciting' Jessie Burton
'Breathtaking' Barbara Kingsolver
'It changed how I thought about the Earth and our place in it' Barack Obama
'Really, just one of the best novels, period' Ann Patchett

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.

Publisher information

  • Publisher: Cornerstone
  • ISBN: 9781804951781
  • Number of pages: 640
  • Dimensions: 198 x 128 x 40 mm
  • Weight: 402g
  • Languages: English

Customer Reviews

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The Overstory
A generous, enthralling epic of trees and their people
This is a book about trees, and it is a book about people, and perhaps most of all it is a book about the space between the two, and therefore about the pa... READ MORE
Josh at Kings Road
The Overstory
An ambitious, but flawed story of trees
This is the most ambitious and complex book on the Booker longlist, and two thirds of the way through it, I was pretty sure it was heading for five stars a... READ MORE
Hugh
The Overstory
a powerful, stunningly touching novel about nature
I have dragged out the completion of this book for as long as possible, not wanting it to end. I knew from the first few magical chapters that this novel w... READ MORE
KimG9
The Overstory
An important book for our time.
I was drawn to this book probably because I have been living in cities for years now and crave a return to nature. This book was just what the doctor order... READ MORE
Clemence Flanagan
The Overstory
An unforgettable novel about trees and our connection with them
It took me a while to get through The Overstory's 500 pages, but it was worth the time - I absolutely loved it. Richard Powers has done a very brave thing... READ MORE
Dipika Mummery
The Overstory
An outstanding read - powerful and plaintive.
I read this as one of my local book club choices and I thank the gods it fell into my orbit - what a terrific book. There are 9 characters whose lives we d... READ MORE
SARAH27
The Overstory
A message from the deep past, and ever present
Once you get the story of the boy or the girl, or the woman or the man or maybe the one before that, clear your diary. Read to the end. Allow an hour and ... READ MORE
Dominic Stevens
The Overstory
Outstanding; Utterly World Changing
“‘Is the house on fire?’A shrug. A sideways pull of the lips. ‘Yes.’‘And you want to observe the handful of people who’re screaming put it out, when everyo... READ MORE
Struan Young
The Overstory
A beautiful hymn to trees and the natural world
I adored the first half of the book, the individual character stories are engrossing and fascinating but as the book continued I got a little lost and conf... READ MORE
Penelope Bullock
The Overstory
Epic roots, quiet revolution
I’ve shelved a fair number of environmental novels, but The Overstory snagged my breath right off the branches. Richard Powers weaves nine lives—an artist ... READ MORE
Lewis at East Kilbride
The Overstory
A challenging but rewarding read
The Overstory by Richard Powers is a literary giant—both in scope and in length. At 640 pages, it’s not for the faint-hearted, but for those willing to imm... READ MORE
Alis Page
The Overstory
Exhilarating epic about environmental activism and ordinary people being extraordinary
This Pulitzer Prize-winning page-turner is an extraordinary epic about environmental activism, the nature of relationship and awakening to the interdepende... READ MORE
Andrew Smith