The overstory, by Richard Powers

Richard Powers is a polymath who in his twelve novels has immersed himself in many different disciplines – genetics, music, and artificial intelligence among others – to the extent that you would believe he had deeply and exclusively studied each.  In The overstory his themes are ecology, the environment, and specifically trees.  All kinds of trees, but primarily those which once blanketed much of this country.  The novels ten main human characters are introduced one by one in separate chapters at the beginning of the book – each chapter a novella unto itself.  The trees themselves are characters – one mourns the loss of chestnuts and American elms, and the imminent destruction of old-growth redwood forests.  It is the plight of the latter that draws the characters together.  New discoveries about the ability of trees to communicate with each other and the interconnectedness of all parts of a mature forest galvanize those who care about the forests into action.  At 500+ pages of dense and gorgeous prose, the book may seem a bit over the top to some (the pun is intentionally as some characters are literally living in the tops of trees to protect them), but many readers will find everything about this book engrossing and enlightening.  I admit to being a big fan of Powers’ writing (and of trees….) and hope many people give this epic story the attention it deserves.  512 pp.