Greenwood

Tough gig having this come out the year after Richard Power's incredible Overstory but Michael Christie absolutely delivers the goods. The stories are concentric rings of a tree as we go backwards in time, passing the central core and radiating outwards again. But we kick off in the not too distant future.

We're on a remote island off the coast of BC that is one of the world's last old-growth forests where only the wealthy can come to commune with the trees in the “Greenwood Arboreal Cathedral.” Little green is left after the Great Withering. It's all dust-choked cities and folks battling rib retch - a cough that can snap ribs.

From here we dive back through four generations of Greenwoods over 130 years. Christie drops threads as we work our way back to 1908. Despite starting in the future we won't see the forest for the trees (sorry/not sorry) until we make our way back from the turn of the century. It's a beautiful bit of storytelling. Each generation seems a mystery to the next.

The Greenwoods legacy is one of hardship and suffering and yet in Christie's hands remains ever hopeful. A sweeping family saga of resilience filled with compelling characters whose lives are tied to the trees that ultimately fit together like a perfect dovetail joint.

The book itself it a piece of work too. (At least my Canadian edition) The hardback is made with 100% recycled paper using vegetable-based inks and water-based adhesives. Thiis one of “the most sustainably published books in Canada ever ...connecting the reading experience and the physical object of the book.