The novel about activism, resistance, and trees (yes, trees) that indie booksellers want you to know about.
In his twelfth novel, National Book Award winner Richard Powers delivers a sweeping, impassioned novel of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of — and paean to — the natural world. It was published on April 3rd and indie booksellers across the country, from Seattle to Brooklyn, are talking about it.
Elliott Bay Book Company (Seattle, WA)
“There is nothing that quite prepares one for the sheer burst of living energy that is a bolt running through Richard Powers’ extraordinary new novel, The Overstory. The people in this book are all human, all observing the passages of life that people do, though there is something truly lit in those that are at the center of this interlinked story. The interlinking is not only between people, but also between people and trees, and surely between trees, whether or not we can comprehend that. This is a book of great, ineffable presence, presence beyond what we build and make, or what we tear or cut down. Yet it’s a book that calls its characters, and calls the reader, to know these bonds, to see and know this greater life, and what’s at stake.” — Rick Simonson
Buy it from Elliott Bay Book Company.
Copperfield Books (Northern CA)
“There are times when a novel is so beautifully imagined and so right for its time that one feels a profound connection to it. The Overstory is that and more. Gorgeous writing and a story about waste, greed and why trees matter to our survival both spiritually and literally as well as the damage being done to them is the world around which The Overstory is wrapped. In typical, brilliant Richard Powers fashion, The Overstory operates on several levels, stunning in thought and affect. This is a haunting novel that consumed me.” — Sheryl Cotleur
Buy it from Copperfield Books.
Powell’s (Portland, OR)
“In The Overstory, Richard Powers has created a beautiful tribute to nature, connection, activism, and home, and I was captivated from the first page. In this interlocking story with multiple time periods and characters, we are reminded that there is still so much to learn about our world.” —Leah C.
Community Bookstore (Brooklyn, NY)
“‘It’s good stories, not the best arguments, that change people’s minds’, says a character in The Overstory, but Richard Powers is aiming for much more than simple persuasion with a story that goes way beyond ‘good.’ He would rewire our relationship toward our environment and, especially, toward trees, metaphors for a once-thriving world now under nihilistic human onslaught. I, for one, will never again look at trees in quite the same way.” —Ezra Goldstein
Buy it from Community Bookstore.
The King’s English (Salt Lake City, UT)
“Reading Powers’s new novel is a bit like reading the bible — it’s voluminous, lyrical, passionate, compelling, chockfull of fascinating characters, of tales that span years and continents, and beneath its overarching, endlessly compelling story lies one central truth: in this case, the truth of trees. Unlike the Bible, The Overstory is grounded in science as intriguing as the tales it tells, as fascinating as the cast of characters who trek the forests and track the pathways of the internet Powers pulls us into. A research scientist, two voracious readers, an artist, an engineer, a statistician, a techie to the Nth degree, trees of every imaginable variety, all interact across species and interests and inclination in a breathtaking book that enchants you, angers you, takes away your hope, gives it back….the ride of a lifetime. The ride of our collective lifetime. Our overstory. Do not miss it. Give a copy to everyone you know. Spread the word. This is a life-changing book.” —Betsy Burton
Buy it from The King’s English.
Brazos Bookstore (Houston, TX)
“Since the 1980s, Powers has quietly established himself as one of America’s greatest living writers, with numerous powerful, emotionally complex, ambitious, and expertly crafted novels. The Overstory may be his masterpiece. This dizzying tale draws together several strangers and the natural world that is fading around them in an epic struggle for the future of American forests. Engaging and timely without being didactic, The Overstory is Powers at his best.” — Keaton
East Bay Booksellers (Oakland, CA)
“The Overstory, which contains an energy like that of the trees that link its intertwining stories, is nothing short of stunning. 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). 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. Until, that is, we look, or prefer, finally, to see. 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.” — Brad Johnson.
Richard Powers will be on tour throughout April.
Learn more about Richard Powers and The Overstory at RichardPowers.net.
