The Overstory

Sarah Allen  |  Features  |  Culture watching
Date posted:  1 Mar 2019
Share Add       
The Overstory

photo: iStock

Shortlisted for, and favourite to win, the 2018 Man Booker prize, The Overstory stands apart from most other contemporary novels.

The first surprise is that it doesn’t centre around people and their problems; the second that it is fundamentally evangelistic. By that I don’t mean that it is a Christian book (far from it, in fact), rather that it aims to convict readers and change their thinking and lives. The message that it proclaims on every page is that trees are complex ‘social beings with memory and agency’, which deserve our reverence.

Wooden communication

It might be a shock to you to learn that trees communicate with each other. It certainly was to me, and if I hadn’t stumbled upon this fact a couple of months ago when turning on the radio1, I might have dismissed The Overstory as fictional whimsy. But this is genuine science. The root systems of trees in forests send messages to each other, appearing to collaborate and share resources. Above the ground, trees learn to recognise danger and then to anticipate it. Or maybe something like that – it’s hard to write about this without using anthropomorphic language.

Share
< Previous article| Features| Next article >
Read more articles by Sarah Allen >>
Features
Racism, brutality and our  need of redemption

Racism, brutality and our need of redemption

We’ve had a Spring and Summer of few new film releases and re-runs on TV so, perhaps like you, my …

Comment
Misogyny, rights & Rowling

Misogyny, rights & Rowling

It might have seemed as if the isolation of lockdown was making people mad last month when the stars of …

Looking for a job?

Browse all our current job adverts

Search

Subscribe

Enjoy our monthly paper and full online access

Find out more