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The Overstory
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 22 hrs and 58 mins
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The Overstory
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Summary
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.
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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)
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What listeners say about The Overstory
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 29-01-19
Extraordinary
In a way, this novel tells us more about the understory than The Overstory. In spite of painting a world, ours, on the brink of disaster, it gives us defiance against so called ‘human progress’, sensitive intelligence towards and solidarity with Nature, a generous love of humanity, and, most of all, the possibility of redemption for our crimes against the Earth. And trees are the giant heroes of this story in an astonishingly empathetic, intelligent and generous way.
The rich, poetical, inventive, beautiful language of Richard Powers is a joy to listen to. And the reader conveys all these and the strength of the story perfectly.
Some readers might find this novel periphrastic and over long, but, in my opinion, this format could be seen as an almost pictorial representation of the shape and nature of trees themselves - trunks, growing, expanding, intertwining branches, leaves and roots.
Wonderful and necessary reading.
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13 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Mrs Prudence Irvine
- 21-02-19
Too Complex for audio
I only managed a half of Part One as I found the narrative too difficult to follow in audio version. As I listen while stitching I couldn’t remember where I’d left off, every time. Perhaps best if listened to without any distraction at all, which is not how I usually listen.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- P J Gilder
- 06-05-20
Lockdown literature
This takes me to places that need 20 years to understand. Listening in a spring under lockdown has been a solace.
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- ANNABEL
- 18-02-19
This book is amazing
I think everyone should read The Overstory. It’s a life changer. It does not anthropomorphise trees and nature but makes a very good argument for leaving them alone to save us as well as them. This wonderful, upsetting at times but also a fantastic story is a cry for conservation and a vital warning to self obsessed, money hungry humans....
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- WomanoftheWorld
- 05-02-21
Too tangential on the technical
The topic is very important and I was initially captivated by setting up the human vignettes around a type of tree. But the characters were never really developed, just stylized. And the details on the trees got to be a bit mind-numbing. I have about 5 hours to go, but not sure I will make it.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dearauntie
- 12-08-20
The best book I ever read
It's a terrifying story beautifully told. It makes me wonder if I would have lived my life differently if I'd read it at twenty. I hope I'm not an aggressive spore blighting a beautiful thing but I'm not sure.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- A. Jones
- 02-08-19
wonderful book
I learnt so much about trees and history from this book. Definitely one to listen to over and over again.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 22-01-19
Phenomenal
Richard Powers writes beautifully, researches meticulously and weaves stories that are completely engrossing and totally convincing. The Overstory is both a moving and powerful work of fiction and a convincing manifesto for trees.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Miss S T Chapman
- 23-04-21
Stunning
I still have goosebumps from the end. This was a wonderful book. True poetry as it works in so many levels. The narrator is fantastic. I just am sad it is over. However, now I am free to go and plant a tree in it’s honour...
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Marion F.S.
- 10-07-19
Aaah! Brilliant.
If you are a ’book-reading-person’; read this book. If you are not a ‘book-reading-person’, this is part of what you are missing out on. You can however love the Overstory anyhow in the forest.
I read “The Secret Life of Trees” by Peter Wohlleben two summers ago. The Overstory is for me a refresher and reminder of the awe we owe life - and trees, told through the lives of people connected to them, as we are; every one of us.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lisl Barry
- 14-10-19
Enchanting, tragic, hopeful
Enchanting - I am an artist by profession, with a fascination for forests and trees and have done many works centred around this subject matter. Richard Powers' prose inspired an other world level of appreciation and awareness for me. I loved the intertwining stories of the main characters to trees and each other.
Tragic - A work of fiction I know, but so much of it is based on truths and reality. What humans do! Have done and continue to do to the environment. Every human should read this story.
Hopeful - That should people wake up to the true value of trees and breathe in the beauty and wonder of forests there will be hope. And having said that they will recover if left in peace, in spite of humans.
I do agree that there was a point at which the story could have ended earlier than it did but I for one was glad to hear more. In fact I listened to the book twice for any hidden intricacies that I may have missed first time round and to repeat the magic of the book's true heros : the trees. I loved it.
The reader's voice I found to be rather austere for my taste. If you feel the same (listening to the sample) don't let it put you off... she does a great job all the same.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 02-08-19
The most difficult book you have to read
This story is the literary mirror that you will struggle to look into. It's beautifully written; poetic at times and at times, pure story-telling in the ancient ways that stories were told. Full of myth-in-the-making it tells of the anti-heros that in time will become the seeds of gods. It will be very difficult to read at times because the truth hurts, but you will feel lighter, wiser and More when you are done.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 25-07-19
A remarkable and complex effort.
This book has changed my life (as it should). Haunting, dazzling, daunting, superb, devastating and so, so BEAUTIFUL.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 30-03-19
Could have been an interesting book...
I found it really difficult to finish the book. Although I like to general idea of the book — I really wanted to like it — I didn’t find the story and the naration engaging enough. I am also annoyed with the way the narrator mimicked different accents.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- sally ohare
- 13-02-20
An inspiring awesome tale. Loveable characters
An important message for humanity told in an engaging way. Thank you. So much for the telling.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Earnest
- 19-01-19
So important, but needs sustained attention
I loved this book but it is speaking to the converted. All the authorial devices used, I get. But. Many who should be learning what this book so earnestly attempts to teach, will give up because of its flaws.
What a shame. Most of it is so beautiful. But repetition and polemics repel many people, particularly if they don’t love trees. This tale will not convert them. So sorry.
The voice actor is splendid.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- McKenna
- 08-08-23
What’s the hype?
Genuinely confused about the high ratings this book has received. The characters are not believable, the setting was not well researched, the plot was lacking. I drive an electric car. I donate to tree planting organizations. I understand the importance of the story’s message. There was an opportunity for this book to make a difference but it really did miss the mark.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 26-05-23
Important book extraordinary narration
This book seems like it has timeless relevance. An incredible feat of writing. So rare that there is such deep ecological insight, such deep human psyche insight and written with poetic grace. It blends art and science with the human condition’s idiosyncrasies. Amazing
Read it
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 02-04-22
love love love THIS story
everything about this
inspired inspirational
transporting
possibly my favorite read ever
performance was excellent
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- SaurabhAnu
- 27-02-22
A book that haunts forever
As I finished the audiobook, outside rain pitter patters on leaves and the eucalyptuses murmur one message: ‘We will be here long after you have gone’.
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