National Book Award-winner Richard Powers (Orfeo) has crafted an epic environmental novel about the Pacific Northwest timber wars in the in the 1990s and the impending destruction of the last of the old-growth forests, whose trees might otherwise help save the earth. In the first half of the book, Powers devotes individual chapters to the lives of nine disparate characters-among them a scientist, an artist, a Vietnam veteran, an engineer, a video game designer. Then in the second half, he weaves their lives together as they join in the eco-battle to save the trees and the planet.  But actions have consequences. Nonviolent protest becomes ecotage which devolves to ecoterrorism: “What wouldn’t a person do to help the most wondrous products of four billion years of creation?” Trees die. People die.  They– people and trees alike– also endure, persist, speak… all life interconnected.

–Tiffany, Grass Roots Books & Music, Corvallis, OR

Keep the literary ecosystem healthy: Get your copy at Grass Roots or another local, independent bookstore.