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The Overstory

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The Overstory

By: Richard Powers
Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
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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

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
Read at the speed of trees.

Plus 9 more words that i have no interest in using.

Absolutely Stunning

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This is great. Beautifully told, you follow the lives of a handful of characters held together by trees. Recommend.

Powerful story

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incredible story telling, once it gets you in its very hard to stop listening. the orator is fantastic doing lovely voices.

fuck you.for making me cry in public

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This is the best book I came across in a while. Such a beautiful language and story full of sorrow and hope.
Amazing book.

Beautiful book

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A thought-provoking and moving work of literature.
This book will change the way you view life.

A masterpiece

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