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The Overstory

A novel from the Vintage Earth collection
By Richard Powers
Series: Vintage Earth
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Check link for latest rating. ( 182,458 ratings, 24,870 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
The Overstory by Richard Powers weaves together the lives of diverse characters, each with a unique connection to trees. Against the backdrop of environmental and ecological themes, their individual stories intertwine and resonate with the broader narrative of nature and humanity's impact on our planet. The book explores the profound relationship between humans and the natural world across multiple decades.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you appreciate intertwining stories with a deep environmental theme, as it weaves together multiple narratives centred around the relationship between humans and trees. The book explores complex character journeys and ecological themes, making it a fascinating read for those interested in nature and the human impact on the environment.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Vintage Earth: Change the story. Novels to transform our relationship with the natural world.

The Overstory is not set in our world with trees in it; it's a world of trees, where humans have just arrived. This is the story of a group of strangers, each summoned in different ways by the natural world, brought together to save it from catastrophe.

An artist inherits a hundred years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut. A hard-partying undergraduate 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.

Moving through history and across landscapes, this tree-filled novel unfurls our potential to destroy or restore the natural world.

"It changed how I thought about the Earth and our place in it" – Barack Obama

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

Vintage Earth is a collection of novels designed to transform our relationship with the natural world. Each one is a work of creative activism, a blast of fresh air, a seed from which change can grow. The books in this series reconnect us to the planet we inhabit—and must protect. Discover great writing on the most urgent story of our times.

Series: Vintage Earth

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  • The Overstory
    Vintage Earth: Change the story. Novels to transform our relationship with the natural world. The Overstory is not set in our world with trees in it; it's a world of trees, where humans have just arrived. This is the story of a group of strangers, each summoned in different ways by the natural world, brought together to save it from...
    By Richard Powers
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  • The Last Quarter of the Moon
    VINTAGE EARTH: Change the story. Novels to transform our relationship with the natural world. 'A long-time confidante of the rain and snow, I am ninety years old. The rain and snow have weathered me, and I too have weathered them.' At the end of the twentieth century, an old woman sits among the birch trees and reflects on the joys...
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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Richard Powers' The Overstory is celebrated for its profound exploration of the natural world, specifically trees, and the interconnectedness of all life. Critics praise its compelling narrative and exceptional prose, noting its ability to shift readers' perspectives and impart knowledge about the environment. The novel is described as an exhilarating and astonishing work, regarded as essential reading for its thoughtful approach to human responsibility towards nature.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781784877910

Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 07 July 2022

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Vintage Classics

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 37.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 437g

Pages: 640

Collections

Fiction General Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Penguin Books Richard Powers Series: Vintage Earth

About the Author

Richard Powers has published thirteen novels. He is a MacArthur Fellow and received the National Book Award. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Overstory and his most recent novel, Bewilderment, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He lives in the Great Smoky Mountains.

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