The Overstory: Winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

“Listen. Just look at me. That’s all you need to do.”

If you could save yourself, your wife, your child, or even a stranger by burning something down, the law allows you. If someone breaks into your home and starts destroying it, you may stop them however you need to.

BLM truck

We found that trees could communicate, over the air and through their roots. Common sense hooted us down. We found that trees take care of each other. Collective science dismissed the idea. Outsiders discovered how seeds remember the seasons of their childhood and set buds accordingly. Outsiders discovered that trees sense the presence of other nea

Life has a way of talking to the future. It’s called memory.

The Ape Inside Us

The best part is Chapter 12, “Influence.”

BRACHYCHITON RUPESTRIS.

For her entire life, unwittingly, she has complied with her parents’ first shared principle: Make no noise in this world. She, Carmen, Amelia—all three Ma girls. Don’t stand out; you have no right. No one owes you a thing. Keep small, vote mainstream, and nod like it all makes sense. Yet here she is, asking for trouble. Acting like what she does mi