Greenwood

Stretching from the near future to the distant past...and then back again, Greenwood tells a beautiful multi-generational story of love, loss, and the meaning of family in all shapes and forms.

Add this title to the growing trend of excellent books about trees that have sprouted up in recent years. Author Michael Christie shines a light on humanity's relationship with trees through the eyes of each main character. Some fight for the preservation and protection of trees at all costs, some craft beautiful art from their component parts, and some heavily exploit them in the name of capitalism. Ultimately, Greenwood speculates a future “Great Withering” of Earth's trees as rapid climate changes leave our towering friends vulnerable and dying.

Christie cleverly uses the cross-section of a tree trunk to organize the nested storytelling structure. Each subsequent section feels tangentially related to the section before it, but as the connections between events and characters become more clear, the full picture emerges, especially in the back half of the book, where we revisit each era once again. I slowly worked my way through this novel and found myself fully immersed in each individual character and story. Christie's prose is beautifully composed and his descriptions of nature are stunning. I'd recommend this to any lover of nature or fan of epic family sagas.

See this post and others at The Speculative Shelf.