Natural Home

Natural Home: Forest as Foundation

Richard Powers, The Overstory 
W.W. Norton, 2018
Climate Fiction Collection
Vanderbilt University Library

There is one space that has always been home on this planet: nature. Richard Powers’ environmental epic, The Overstory, envisions the natural world through the lens of trees: multi- generational creatures that remind readers of the roots of their home in nature. The novel links each of its protagonists to a tree and shows the climate threats that face the trees. The story underscores the importance of nature, and more specifically the forest, as the original foundation of home.

“They sit next to each other . . . two hundred feet in the air . . . The whole three-level tree house balances on the top of an enormous fork made when the trunk was hit by lightning centuries ago. It sways with every breeze . . . ‘We’re here. We made it. This is where they want us’”.

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Nick and Olivia, two protagonists, make their home in the redwood Mimas tree to save it from loggers. Lives connect—the humans trusting Mimas, Mimas needing them. The characters are at home in their alliance with nature.