The Overstory

Richard Powers William Heinemann €16.99

In his extraordinary 12th novel, Powers follows nine characters whose lives are bound up with the beauty, history, science, mythos and heedless destruction of trees. Introduced separately, they gradually converge across decades. Several commit to radical protests with piercing consequences years later. One woman’s scientific breakthrough makes her a reluctant figurehead. Passionately ecological in its themes, the novel doesn’t hammer at them. The green message becomes a natural element borne eloquently through the narrative.