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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.

©2018 Richard Powers (P)2018 Random House Audiobooks Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Metaphysical & Visionary Political Inspiring Heartfelt Thought-Provoking

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)
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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Richard Powers takes our current situation of environmental destruction and possible planet collapse and weaves A storyline of six characters which has a allegorical feel to it.
His Style is masterful and he also manages to bring A lot of factual data particularly about trees.
I would highly recommend this book. The reading style In this book in audible is subtle and evokes clearly each character.

Brilliant conceptually and a finally crafted work

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This has to be in my top 3 books of all time. It's written so beautifully and with such a powerful and descriptive narrative. Would recommend to anyone.

Devastatingly beautiful

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For some there is only one valid 'holy book', The Bible. A compendium of wisdom, history, prophecy, metaphor and polemic, the Bible is of course but one of many 'holy books' adrift in the ocean of humanity. Comparisons include the vast cannon of works that underline Hinduism, Buddhist literature and we haven't even reached the borders of China yet.

But 'holy books' (general guides to life. living, human psychology and the mysteries of existence) aren't some static fixture from a particular time in human history, they appear all the time in all sorts of forms and among the most recent batch I might dare to include Richard Powers 2018 novel The Overstory, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

This sprawling novel explores a disparate group of people and their relationship to trees and is both exhilarating and frustrating. Powers is a writer, scientist, musician........ it's a long list so let's just say he's an all round Renaissance man and The Overstory is the work of one so inclined and examines biological science, history, scientific speculation, polemic, metaphor, psychology, prophecy and so on.

It is inspiring, transformative (in regards to how it might change the way your mind considers plant life), thrilling, gripping and as I said, somewhat frustrating. Here I am referring to an overladen cast, with one or two characters that may be superfluous to the task and whose undercooked presence sucks the life out of the narrative flow from time to time.

The novel is also a tad top heavy and though Powers manages the unwieldy task of weaving the threads together, it could have done with a little more 'finishing', but small niggles.

In the same vein of fictional inquiry aka 'holy books' like Hermann Hesse's The Glass Bead Game and David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, Richard Powers The Overstory is a plea for the planet, this living breathing network of biological complexity that has managed sentience among a bewildering host of achievements (certainly some references to evolutionary philosopher Pierre Teilhard De Chardin at work here).

Powers has a way with words and the result is a beautifully crafted and somewhat poetic novel that leaves the reader better for the experience and in my case, chagrined at my lack of insight aka trees. Certainly a book for our time, maybe for the ages.

A Holy Book

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...Until I listened to this. I ended up buying the paperback book too when I was halfway through because I want my family to read it.
Extremely poignant, sad and inspiring story.

Didn’t think I could love trees more than I did...

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I feel deeply enriched by this book, which contains several lifetimes worth of wisdom, and was a wondrous pleasure to read. I prefer to read than listen, but this was great for tired eyes, and in fact the woman who performed the reading made it come alive, while making the reading experience feel like I was sharing it with someone.

A masterpiece, masterfully read aloud.

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What a wonderful story. Never take a tree for granted again, let alone get rid of one.

Sensational

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If only everyone could comprehend the need to reforest and take care of our planet today. We might give what’s left hope.

Masterpiece is not enough Truth

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