The Overstory by Richard Powers
The Overstory is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of the natural world. The novel tells the intertwined tales of nine different people who are drawn into the last standing few acres of virgin forest in North America. From a young artist who inherits a hundred years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut, to a hard-partying undergraduate in the late 1980s electrocuted by a streetlight, each character's story adds another layer of depth to the narrative. Their lives slowly merge with each other and the fate of the trees, showing the interconnectedness of life, human and otherwise.
The 1110th greatest book of all time
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Total Points: 365
This book was first published in 2018
15 Lists
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- score: 34 -- 100 Books You Must Read Before You Die - 2020 (Weight: 142)
- score: 30 -- Readers Pick Their 100 Best Books of the 21st Century - 2024 (Weight: 89)
- score: 29 -- Ezra Klein Show's Most Recommended Books - 2024 (Weight: 100)
- score: 24 -- Fifty French Writers Choose Their Favorite 10 Books - Honourable Mention - 2022 (Weight: 89)
- score: 22 -- Honorable Mention - The 25 Masterpieces of World Literature That Will Define the 21st Century (25-250) - 2025 (Weight: 60)
- score: 21 -- The 20 Best Novels of the Decade (2010s) - 2020 (Weight: 90)
- score: 18 -- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction - Yearly Book Award (Weight: 86)
- score: 16 -- 100 Notable Books of 2018 - 2018 (Weight: 79)
- score: 6 -- A Hundred Novels to Change Your Life - 2019 (Weight: 28)
- score: 1 -- Best Books of the Decade(2010-2020) - 2019 (Weight: 1)
- score: 1 -- Australia’s Radio National top 100 books of the 21st century - 2025 (Weight: 1)
- score: 1 -- Our Users' Honorable Mention Favorite Books of All Time - 2024 (Weight: 1)