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Rating: 🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳/5 Trees
Genres: Nature Writing, Drama, Eco-Activism, Fiction
The Overstory is a remarkable novel with a powerful message: trees are important — and they are essential for life on Earth.
“This is not our world with trees in it. It’s a world of trees, where humans have just arrived.”
Richard Powers’ The Overstory is a novel about trees. There are compelling characters and captivating narratives centered on eco-activism, technology, and human relationships, but trees are the driving force of this expansive and eloquent novel.
The book begins with a section entitled “Roots,” which paints the backstory for the characters (and the trees) you will follow throughout the novel in eight magnificent short stories. The first, titled “Nicholas Hoel,” tells the story of the American Chestnut and the devastating blight that wiped out nearly the entire species in the first half of the 20th century. Nicholas is the last of a long line of ancestors who documented their isolated Midwestern Chestnut Tree (Castanea dentata) through a photograph taken every year of the tree’s life. The result places a tree’s growth into a visual timeline humans can understand.
This sentiment extends to the novel itself. I am now fully armed with fascinating facts about native trees: the American Linden (with its many medicinal uses), the Pawpaw tree (its fruit is the largest edible native fruit in North America), and the American Beech (whose specific growth requirements make it an excellent indicator of fertile farmland).
From “Roots,” the narrative moves to sections titled “Trunk,” “Crown,” and “Seeds.” It is the poetic way Powers writes about native tree species and ecological systems that drives the story for me. One character describes:
“‘Something marvelous is happening underground, something we’re just learning how to see. Mats of mycorrhizal cabling link trees into gigantic, smart communities spread across hundreds of acres. Together, they form vast trading networks of goods, services, and information.…’”
Here and throughout the book, Powers brings to life the secret worlds trees create and sustain — networks that are not only ancient and interconnected, but also fragile. He reminds us that human interference in native ecosystems can be devastating.
The Overstory is a powerful reminder of the vital role trees play in our world. It’s a message that we at Direct Native Plants believe deeply and hope to spread through our work with locally sourced native plants, pollinator-friendly trees, and sustainable landscaping practices. As Powers writes:
“The best arguments in the world won’t change a person’s mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.”
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Melissa works in the sales division of Direct Native Plants and has been a voracious reader since she was a young sapling.
